THE MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW.
(C^EDES COLIGN1I ET SOC10RTJH EJUS.)
From a painting by Vasari in the Sala Regia of the Vatican.
THE HUGUENOTS
THEIR
SETTLEMENTS, CHURCHES, AND INDUSTRIES,
IN ENGLAND AND IRELAND
BY SAMUEL SMILES, LL.D.
AUTHOR OF "LIVES OF THE ENGINEERS," "SELF-HELP," "THRIFT,
"CHARACTER," ETC.
SIXTH EDITION
LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET
1889
WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
LIVES OF THE ENGINEERS, Illustrated by 9 Steel Portraits and
342 Engravings on Wood. Five vols. ^s. 6d. each.
VOL. I. — EMBANKMENTS AND CANALS — VERMUYDEN, MYDDELTON,
PERRY, BRINDLEY.
II. — HARBOURS, LIGHTHOUSES, AND BRIDGES— SMEATON AND
RENNIE.
t> III.— HISTORY OF ROADS— METCALFE AND TELFORD.
IV.— THE STEAM-ENGINE— BOULTON AND WATT.
V.— THE LOCOMOTIVE— GEORGE AND ROBERT STEPHEJJSON.
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MEN OF INVENTION. Post 8vo. 6s.
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PREFACE.
THE First Edition of this work was published in 1868,
and it has since been frequently reprinted, with
additions. It was stated in the First Edition that
important names might have been omitted from the
List of Huguenot Refugees and their Descendants at
the close of the volume ; but the Author invited further
contributions on the subject, which would be inserted
in any future edition.
Numerous memoirs have accordingly been sent to
the Author from England, Ireland, Scotland, and even
India, in reply to his invitation. Many of these had
never before been published, though they are of much
interest. They are now included in the List of
Distinguished Huguenots and their Descendants, and
in the Appendix to the same list, at the end of this
volume. The memoirs in the Appendix are the most
recent additions.
The Author has also received numerous inquiries
from descendants of Huguenots who had lost traces of
6
2056458
vi PREFACE.
their origin, requesting information as to their ances-
tors. Sometimes he was enabled to supply information,
after consulting Haag's La France Protestante, Cooper's
Lists of Foreign Protestants and Aliens, Burns' His-
tory of the Foreign Refugees, the Ulster Journal of
Archceology, and Agnew's Protestant Exiles from
France ; but, in a large number of cases, he could
give no information. During the last few years,
however, a Huguenot Society has been established in
London, from which all accessible facts can be easily
ascertained.
The First Edition of this work was translated into
French in 1870, with an excellent Preface by M.
Athanase Coquerel fils. It was printed by Heitz, at
Strasburg; and, while it was ready for transport to
Paris, the city was surrounded and bombarded by the
German army, when a considerable part of the edition
was destroyed. After the conclusion of the Franco-
German war, the book was eventually published by
Cherbuliez, of Paris.
The surrenders of Bazaine at Metz, and of Napo-
leon III. at Sedan, will never be forgotten. Sedan,
prior to the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, was
the renowned seat of Protestant learning ; but after the
university had been suppressed, and the Protestants
driven away by persecution, Sedan withered, and had
become almost forgotten. Now, however, it is known
as the scene of the greatest military catastrophe which
has happened in modern times.
" Cast thy bread upon the waters, and thou shalt
PREFACE. vii
find it after many days," is a counsel which has
received a significant realization in the relations
between France and Prussia. A large number of
the expatriated refugees took refuge in Prussia,
which was then slowly emerging from the marshes
of Brandenburg. France was the dominant power
in Europe, while Prussia was of comparatively little
moment. Now, Prussia, from a Dukedom has
become a Kingdom, and, on the soil of France, an
Empire.
What France lost by religious intolerance was
forcibly expressed by M. Jules Simon, when Prime
Minister. Discussing the ecclesiastical questions then
perplexing French politicians, he recalled the fact that
not less than eighty of the German staff, in the recent
Franco-German war, were representatives of Protestant
families who had been driven from France by the
persecutions which followed the Ee vocation of the
Edict of Nantes. It was meet that the descendants of
the men whom Louis XIV., the despot of the seven-
teenth century, had cast out, should be conspicuous
in dethroning the despot of the nineteenth.
LONDON : October, 1889.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION . f Page xvii
CHAPTER I.
THE REFORMATION — INVENTION OP PRINTING.
General ferment in Europe in the 16th century — Papal church and
its despotism — Sale of indulgences — Luther — Invention of printing
— Gutenberg, Faust, and Schceffer — Printing of the Bible — Luther
and the Bible — Effects of reading the Bible — Reformation in Meaux
— Jacques Lefevre — Opposed by the Sorbonne — Printers and Bibles
publicly burnt — Origin of the term " Huguenot " . Pages 1 — 21
CHAPTER II.
EPISODE IN THE LIFE OF PALISSY.
The life of Palissy illustrative of his epoch — Palissy travels in France
and Germany — Joins " The Religion " — Life at Saintes — His pursuit
of the enamel — His sufferings — The early Gospellers — Progress of
" The Religion " — The Huguenots a political power — Religious
persecutions at Saintes — Palissy imprisoned — His perseverance and
triumph , . Pages 22— 37
CHAPTER III.
PERSECUTIONS OF THE REFORMED.
Huguenot men of genius — Increase of the Reformed party — Influence
of Catherine de Medic-is and the Guises — Burning of Lutherans —
Francis Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorraine — Mary Queen
of Scots — The conspiracy of Amboise — Massacre of the conspirators
— Francis II. and Charles IX. — Chancellor de 1'Hopital — Religious
conference — Massacre of Vassy — Triumph of the Guises — Massacres
throughout France — Civil war — Peace of St. Germains .
Pages 38—51
COXTJSlfTS.
CHAPTER IV.
THE DUKE OF ALVA IN FLANDERS — MASSACRE OF ST.
BARTHOLOMEW.
Prosperity of the Low Countries — Rise of the Jesuits — Philip II. es-
tablishes the Inquisition in Flanders — The Duke of Alva, his war
of extermination — The Duke of Parma — Flight of Protestants from
the Low Countries — Interview at Bayonne — Plot to exterminate
the French Protestant chiefs — Marriage of Henry of Navarre to
Margaret, Princess of France — The massacre determined on — At-
tempt to murder Admiral Coligny — Charles IX. orders a general
massacre of the Protestants — The massacre of St. Bartholomew —
Rejoicings at Rome — Death of Charles IX. — Siege of La Rochelle
— Henry III. — Murder of the Guises — Wars of the League — Assas-
sination of Henry III. — Accession of Henry IV. . Pages 52 — 71
CHAPTER V.
RELATIONS OF ENGLAND WITH FRANCE AND SPAIN.
England at the accession of Elizabeth — Perils of Elizabeth — The Pope
denounces her, and denies her legitimacy — She gives free asylum
to foreign Protestants — Plots against her life — Maiy Queen of Scots
— The Northern rebellion — The Pope excommunicates Elizabeth —
Assassin's hired to murder her — Ridolfi — The plots defeated — News
of the massacre of St. Bartholomew arrive in England — Reception
of the French ambassador by the Court — Execution of the Queen
of Scots — Defeat of the Sacred Armada — The reigns of Philip II.
and Elizabeth contrasted Pages 72 — 87
CHAPTER VI.
ETTLEMENTS AND INDUSTRIES OF THE PROTESTANT REFUGEES
IN ENGLAND.
Early industry of England — Extensive immigration of Flemish and
French Protestant artizans — The foreigners welcomed by Edward VI.
and Elizabeth — Landings at Deal, Sandwich, Rye, and Dover — Pros-
perity of the Flemings at Sandwich — The industries introduced by
them — Protestant exiles in London — In Southwark and Bermond-
sey — At Bow, Wandsworth, and Mortlake — Native jealousy — The
Flemish merchants — Numbers of the immigrants — Settlement at
CONTENTS.
Norwich — Protected by Duke of Norfolk and Queen Elizabeth — Es-
tablishment of the cloth manufacture — Thread and lace makers —
Glass makers — Workers in iron and steel — Fish curers — Drainers of
fen-lands — Refugees find asylum in Scotland — Flemish Protestants
at Swords in Ireland . . . . . Pages 88 — 115
CHAPTER VI L
EAELY WALLOON AND FRENCH CHURCHES IN ENGLAND.
Desire of the refugees for freedom of worship — The first Walloon and
French churches in London — John A'Lasco — Dutch church in
Austin Friars — French church in Threadneedle Street — Church at
Glastonbury — Churches at Sandwich, Rye, Norwich — "God's
House" at Southampton — Register of their church — Their fasts
and thanksgivings — Queen Elizabeth at Southampton — Walloon
church at Canterbury — Memorial of the Refugees — The Undercroft
in Canterbury Cathedral — The Lady Chapel — Occupation of the
Undercroft by the Walloons — The French church still in Canter-
bury Cathedral — Archbishop Laud and the Refugees — Many of them
fly from England — Laud's reactionary course checked
Pages 116—129
CHAPTER VII I.
THE EDICT OF NANTES — COLBERT AND LOUIS XIV.
Accession of Henry IV. in France — Promulgates the Edict of Nantes
— Assassination of Henry IV. by Ravaillac — Marie de Medicis
— Renewal of civil war — Cardinal Richelieu — Second siege of
Rochelle — The besieged attempted to be relieved by England — The
Huguenots cease to exist as a political body — Edict of pardon —
Loyalty of the Huguenots — Their industry — Their manufactures —
Their honesty — Their integrity as merchants — Colbert — Absolutism
of Louis XIV. — His ambition — His wars — His extravagance — Death
of Colbert — His encouragement of the Huguenots — Colbert's policy
and character ... ... Pages 130—142
CHAPTER IX.
THE HUGUENOT PERSECUTIONS UNDER LOUIS XIV.
Enmity of Louis XIV. to the Huguenots— His edicts against them —
Death of the Queen-mother, and her bequest — The persecutions re-
CONTENTS.
newed — Emigration prohibited — Cruel edicts of Louis — His amours
and " conversion " — Madame de Maintenon — Attempt to purchase
Huguenot consciences — Abduction of Protestant children— The
Dragonnades — Forced conversions — The Protestant churches des-
troyed— Property confiscated — Incident at Saintonge — Dragonnade
in Beam — Louis XIV. revokes the Edict of Nantes, and marries
Madame de Maintenon Pages 143 — 155
CHAPTER X.
RENEWED FLIGHT OF THE HUGUENOTS.
Rejoicings at Rome on the revocation of the Edict — Bossuet's and
Massillon's praises of Louis XIV. — Consequences of the revocation
— The military Jacquerie — Demolition of Protestant churches —
Employment of the Huguenots proscribed — Pursued beyond death
— Conversion or flight — Schomberg, Ruvigny, Duquesne — The
banished pastors — General flight of the Huguenots — Closing of the
frontier — Capture and punishment of the detected — Flight in dis-
gnise — Traditions of hair-breadth escapes — Flight of women —
Widow of Lord de Bourdieu — Judith Mariengault — The Morells —
Henri de Dibon — Jean Marteilhe of Bergerac — The captured con-
demned to the galleys — Young galley-slaves — Old galley-slaves —
Louis de Marolles — John Huber — The flight by sea — Count de
Marance — The Lore! of Castelfranc — The Misses Raboteau — French
gentlewoman refugee — David Garric — Fumigation of ships' holds —
Numbers of Huguenot fugitives from France — Death-blow given to
French industry — The '' Churches of the desert " . Pages 156 — 178
CHAPTER XI.
THE HUGUENOTS AND THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION OF 1G88.
The countries of the Refuge — The asylum of Geneva — The Huguenots
in Switzerland; in Bradenberg and Germany — Refugees at the
Cape of Good Hope ; in the United States— Holland " The Great
Ark of the Fugitives " — Eminent refugees in the Low Countries —
Their hospitable reception by the Dutch — Refugee soldiers and
sailors — William, Prince of Orange : his relation to the English
throne — The Stuart kings and the Protestant refugees — Accession
of James II. — Compared with Louis XIV. — Attempts to suppress
Protestantism — Popular reaction — William of Orange invited over
to England — French Huguenot officers and soldiers in the Dutch
army — Marshal Schomberg .... Pages 179 — 201
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XII.
ADVENTURES OF DUMONT DE BOSTAQUET— IRISH CAMPAIGNS
OF 1689-90.
Dumont de Bostaquet, a Protestant gentleman of Normandy — His
Church at Lindebceuf demolished — Dragonnades in Normandy —
Soldiers quartered in Protestant families — De Bostaquet meditates
flight from France — Journey to the sea-coast — Attacked by the
coast-guard — De Bostaquet wounded — His flight through Picardy,
and sufferings — Refuge in Holland — Expedition of William of
Orange to England — Landing at Torbay — Advance to Exeter and
London — Revolution of 1688 — The exiles in London — The Marquis
de Ruvigny at Greenwich — Huguenot regiments sent into Ireland
— Losses of the army at Dundalk — Landing of James IL in Ireland
with a French army — Huguenot regiments recruited in Switzerland
— William III. takes the field in person — Campaign of 1690 — Battle
of the Boyne— Death of Marshal Schomberg . Pages 202—226
CHAPTER XIII.
HUGUENOT OFFICERS IN THE BRITISH SERVICE.
Henry, second Marquis de Ruvigny, distinguishes himself at the battle
of Aughrim, and is created Earl of Galway — War in Savoy — Earl
of Galway placed in command — Appointed Lord Justice in Ireland
— Founding of Portarlington — The Huguenot regiments — Earl of
Galway takes command of the army in Spain — Bravery of the
Huguenot soldiers — Jean Cavalier, the Camisard leader — The war
of the Blouses — Cavalier enters the service of William III. — His
desperate valour at the battle of Almanza in Spain — Made gover-
nor of Jersey and major-general — Rapin-Thoyras, the soldier-
historian — John de Bodt, the engineer — Field-marshal Lord Ligonier
— The Huguenot sailors — Admiral Gambier . . . Pages 227 — 241
CHAPTER XIV.
HUGUENOT MEN OF SCIENCE AND LEARNING.
The Huguenots refugees for liberty — The emigration a protest against
intellectual and religious tyranny — Eminent refugees — Solomon de
Caus — Denis Papin, his scientific eminence — Dr. Desaguliers —
David Durancl — Abraham de Moivre — Refugee Literati — Jean
Graverol — Refugee pastors: Abbadie ; Saurin ; AUix; Pinetoa,
CONTEXTS.
his escape from France — Huguenot Churchmen and Dissenters —
The Du Moulins — James Capel — Claude de la Mothe — Armand du
Bourdieu . Pages 242—260
CHAPTER XV.
HUGUENOT SETTLEMENTS IN ENGLAND — MEN OF INDUSTRY.
Flight of the manufacturing class from France — Districts from which
they chiefly came — Money brought by them into England — Mea-
sures taken for relief of the destitute — French Belief Committee
— The Huguenots self-helping and helpful of each other — Their
Benefit societies — Their settlements in Spitalfields and other parts of
London — They introduce new branches of industry from France —
Establishment of the silk-manufacture — Silk stocking trade — Glass-
works— Paper-mills — The De Portal family — Henry de Portal, the
paper-maker — Manufactures at Canterbury, Norwich, and Ipswich
— Lace-making — Refugee industries in Scotland . Pages 261 — 277
CHAPTER XVI
THE HUGUENOT CHURCHES IN ENGLAND.
Large number of refugee churches in London — French church of
Threadneedle Street — Church of the Savoy — Swallow Street church,
Piccadilly — French churches in Spitalfields — Churches in subur-
ban districts — The Malthouse church, Canterbury — " God's House,"
Southampton — French churches at Bristol, Plymouth, Stonehouse,
Dartmouth, and Exeter — Churches at Thorpe-le-Soken, Essex —
Gradual decadence of the churches — Lamentations of the Rev. M.
Bourdillon — Founding of the French Hospital — Governors and
directors of the institution — Remnant of the refugee churches a
Canterbury and Norwich Pages 278 — 291
CHAPTER XVII.
HUGUENOT SETTLEMENTS IN IRELAND.
Attempts to establish the linen-trade in Ireland by refugees —
Flemish refugees — The Duke of Ormond — Efforts of William III.
to promote Irish industry — French refugee colony at Dublin —
Settlement at Lisburn, near Belfast — Louis Crommelin appointed
" Overseer of Royal Linen Manufactory of Ireland " — His labours
crowned with success — Peter Goyer— Settlements at Kilkenny and
Cork — Life and adventures of James of Fontaine in England and
CONTENTS.
Ireland — Settlement at Youghal — Refugee colony at Waterford —
The French town of Portarlington — Its inhabitants and their des-
cendants — Prosperity of the north of Ireland . Pages 292 — 317
CHAPTER
DESCENDANTS OF THE REFUGEES.
The descendants of the refugee Flemings and French still recognisable
in England — Changes of name by the Flemings — The Des Bouveries
family — Hugesseas — Houblons — Eminent descendants of Flemish
refugees — The Grote family — Changes of French names— Names
still preserved — The Queen's descent from a Huguenot — The Trench
family — Peers descended from Huguenots — Peerages of Taunton,
Eversley, and Romilly — The Lefevres — Family of Romilly — Baro-
nets descended from Huguenots — Members of Parliament — Emi-
nent scholars : Archdeacon Jortin, Maturin, Dutens, Rev. William
Romaine — Eminent lawyers descended from refugees — Eminent
literary men of the same origin — The handloom wearers of Spital-
fields — The Dollonds — Lewis Paul, inventor of spinning by rollers
— Migration from Spitalfields — The last persecutions in France —
The descendants of the Huguenot refugees become British .
Pages 318—343
CHAPTER XIX.
CONCLUSION — THE FBENCH BEVOLUT10N.
Effects of the persecutions in Flanders and France — Spain— Suppres-
sion of Protestantism and liberty— Disappearance of great men in
France after the Revocation — Triumph of the Jesuits — Aggrandise-
ment of the Church — Hunger and emptiness of the people— Extinc-
tion of religion— The Church assailed by Voltaire — Persecution of
the clergy— The Reign of Terror— Flight of the nobles and clergy
from France into Germany and England — The dragonnades of the
Huguenots repeated in the noyades of the Royalists— Louis XVI.
and Marie Antoinette the victims of Louis XIV. — Relation of the
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes to the French Revolution —
Conclusion . . ..... Pages 344— 356
LIST OF DISTINGUISHED REFUGEE PROTESTANTS and their des.
cendants ........ Pages 357—431
APPENDIX ....... . „ 431—448
INDEX ......... 449—458
THE geographical position of Britain has, from the
earliest times, rendered it a country of refuge. Front-
ing Europe, yet separated from it by a deep sea-moat,
the proscribed of other lands have by turns sought
the protection of the island fortress, and made it their
home. To the country of the Britons the Saxons
brought their industry, the Northmen their energy,
and the Flemings and French their skill and spirit
of liberty ; and out of the whole has come the English
nation.
MICHELET, the French historian — though his obser-
vations in regard to England are usually conceived
in a hostile spirit — has nevertheless acknowledged
the free Asylum which this country has in all times
afforded to foreigners flying from persecution abroad.
" Hateful as England is," says he, " she appears grand
indeed, as she faces Europe, — as she faces Dunkirk
and Antwerp in ruins. All other countries — Russia,
Austria, Italy, Spain, and France — have their capi-
tals on the west, opposite the setting sun: the
rXTR OD TJCT10N.
great European vessel seems to float with her sails
bellied by the wind, which erst blew from Asia.
England alone has hers pointed to the east, as if in
defiance of that world — unum omnia contra. This
last country of the Old World is the heroical land ;
the constant refuge of the exiled and the energetic.
All who have ever fled servitude, — Druids pursued
by Rome, Gallo-Romans chased by the barbarians,
Saxons proscribed by Charlemagne, famished Danes,
grasping Normans, the persecuted Flemish manufac-
turers, the vanquished French Calvinists, — all have
crossed the sea, and made the great island their coun-
try : arva, beata petamus arva, divites et insulas . . .
Thus England has thriven on misfortunes and grown
great out of ruins." l
The early industry of England was almost entirely
pastoral Down to a comparatively recent period, it
was a great grazing country, and its principal staple
was Wool. The English people being as yet unskilled
in the arts of manufacture, the wool was bought up
by foreign merchants, and exported abroad in large
quantities, principally to Flanders and France, there
to be manufactured into cloth, and partly returned in
that form for sale in the English markets.
The English kings, desirous of encouraging home
industry, held out repeated inducements to foreign
artizans to come over and settle in this country for the
1 History of France, Book III.
INTRODUCTION.
purpose of instructing their subjects in the industrial
arts. This policy was pursued during many successive
reigns, more particularly in that of Edward III. ; and,
by the middle of the fourteenth century, large numbers
of Flemish artizans, driven out of the Low Countries
by the tyranny of the trades-unions as well as by civil
wars, embraced the offers held out to them, settled in
various parts of England, and laid the foundations of
English skilled industry.
But by far the most important emigrations of
skilled foreigners from Europe, were occasioned by the
religious persecutions which prevailed in Flanders and
France for a considerable period after the Reformation.
Two great waves of foreign population then flowed
over from the Continent into England, — probably the
largest in point of numbers which have occurred since
the date of the Saxon settlement. The first took place
in the latter half of the sixteenth century, and con-
sisted partly of French, but principally of Flemish
Protestants ; the second, towards the end of the seven-
teenth century, consisted almost entirely of French
Huguenots.
The second of these emigrations, consequent on the
religious persecutions which followed the Revocation
of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV., was of extra-
ordinary magnitude. According to Sismondi, the loss
which it occasioned to France was not far short of
a million of persons, and these were her best and most
industrious subjects. Although the circumstances con-
IXTRODUCTIOy.
nected with this remarkable exodus, as well as the
events which flowed from them, exercised an important
influence on the political, religious, and industrial
history of Northern Europe, they have as yet, viewed
in this connection, received but slight notice at the
hands of the historian.
It is the object of the following work io give an
account of the causes which led to these great migrations
of Flemish and French Protestants from Flanders and
France into England, and to describe their effects upon
English industry as well as English histoiy. The
author merely offers the book as a contribution to the
study of the subject, which seems to be one well
worthy of further investigation.
THE HUGUENOTS.
CHAPTER I.
RISE OF THE HUGUENOTS.
A GENERAL ferment pervaded Europe about the be-
ginning of the sixteenth century. The minds of men
in all countries were fretting under the trammels
which bound them. Privilege prevailed everywhere ;
the people could not breathe freely ; they felt them-
selves enslaved, and longed for liberty.
At the same time intelligence was advancing. The
leaders of thought were gradually adding to the domain
of science. Important inventions had been made; a
new world had just been discovered by Columbus ;
and great thinkers were casting their thoughts abroad
on the world, stimulating other minds to action, and
pointing the way to greater freedom.
But a great barrier stood in the way of all further
advancement in the direction of human enfranchise-
ment and liberty. The Papal Church upheld des-
potism, arrested science, suppressed thought, and
barred progress. Wherever free inquiry showed itself,
whether in religion or science, the Church endeavoured
to crush it. For this purpose, the Inquisition was
established. Savonarola was burnt at Florence, and
Huss at Constance; whilst, at Rome, Bruno was
condemned to the stake, and Galileo was imprisoned, if
he was not even put to the torture, and compelled to
recant his theory of the earth's motion round the sun.
1
a ABUSES IN Tilt! CHURCJf. CHAP. 1.
Meanwhile, the Church itself was seen to be a
mass of abuses ; and the feeling of its intolerableness
at length broke out into a general demand for its
reformation. There were many eminent churchmen
who sought to reform it from within. Amongst these,
St. Bernard and others raised their voices long before
the sixteenth century ; but the corrupt influences
which prevailed in the Church were too powerful to
be overcome, and the reform was left to be done from
without.
The profligacy and despotism of the Papal Church
might, however, have continued for centuries longer,
had not its agents proceeded to insult too audaciously
the common sense and conscience of mankind, by the
open sale of indulgences to commit sin, as well as
absolutions for sins that had been committed. The
young and voluptuous Pope Leo X., who succeeded
the warlike Pope Julius II. in 1513, entertained the
ambition of rearing an ecclesiastical fabric which
should surpass in magnificence all that had preceded
it. He surrounded himself with the greatest artists :
Bramante, who designed it; Raphael, who painted its
galleries; and Michael Angelo, who finished it; and
the cathedral of St. Peter's at Rome was at length
achieved. But it was at an enormous cost ; for not
only did it impoverish the Papal exchequer, but it
split the Papal Church itself in pieces.
The sale of Indulgences was invented for the purpose
of replenishing the Roman exchequer, and agents were
sent all over Europe to raise funds by this means.
Germany was then the great stronghold of the Papal
treasury. In Spain and France, it was the will of
the King, rather than of the Pope, that ruled ; but in
Germany the civil authority was in a great measure
left to the ecclesiastical power. In Germany, therefore,
the first great efforts were made to fill the coffers of
Rome by the sale of indulgences ; and among the most
zealous of all the agents who were so employed, was
the Dominican monk, John Tetzel, who acted in
CHAP. t. SALE OF INDULGENCES. 3
subordination to Albert of Brandenburg, Elector of
Mentz, the principal commissary of the Pope.
The traffic of indulgences was carried on openly.
Indulgences were sold by auction, at beat of drum,
in public places. They were sold by wholesale and
retail. The traffic had its directors and sub-directors,
— its officers, its tariffs, its travelling factors ; and
those agents were employed who best knew the art
of deceiving and cozening the people.
Never had such privileges to commit sin been
offered to the world, as those which were now openly
hawked about by Tetzel. A regular tariff was fixed,1
— so much for little sins, so much for great sins, so
much for eating meat on Fridays, so much for lying,
so much for theft, so much for adultery, so much for
child-murder, so much for assassination. Bigamy cost
only six ducats. This abominable traffic could not fail
to rouse the indignation of good men, who saw, with
affliction, people of all ranks running after Tetzel to
buy indulgence for committing sin ; and at length the
public conscience spoke through the voices of bold and
earnest men, and, most loudly of all, through that of
Martin Luther.
In the meantime a great invention had been made,
which gave wings to Luther's words, and accelerated
the coming Reformation in a remarkable degree.
Probably no invention has exercised a greater in-
fluence upon modern civilisation than that of Printing.
While it has been the mother and preserver of many
other inventions which have changed the face of
society, it has also afforded facilities for the intercourse
of mind with mind — of living men with each other, as
1 The tariff of indulgences is excessively strict, from the year
set forth at length in the cele- 1471 downwards, under the eyes
brated book entitled Taxes of the of the successive Popes, and
Roman Chancery. It is now re- doubtless with their sanction ;
pudiated by Roman Catholics ; for no book could then be printed
but repeated editions of it (ten or published that had not been
in number) were published at previously licensed.
Home, when the censorship was
4 INVENTION OF PRINTING. CHAP. 1.
well as with the thinkers of past generations, — which
have evoked an extraordinary degree of mental activity,
and exercised a powerful influence on the development
of modern history.
Although letters were diligently cultivated long
before the invention of printing, and many valuable
books existed in manuscript, and seminaries of learning
flourished in all civilised countries, knowledge was for
the most part confined to a comparatively small num-
ber of persons. The manuscripts which contained the
treasured thoughts of the ancient poets, scholars, and
men of science, were so scarce and dear that they were
frequently sold for double or treble their weight in
gold. In some cases they were considered so precious,
that they were conveyed by deed, like landed estates.
In the thirteenth century, a manuscript copy of the
Romance of the Rose was sold at Paris for over £33
sterling. A copy of the Bible cost from £40 to £60 for
the writing only; for it took an expert copyist about ten
months' labour to make one.1 Such being the case, it
will be obvious that books were then for the most part
the luxury of the rich, and comparatively inaccessible
to the great body of the people.
1 It is difficult to form an ac- 13s. 4d.), and of resident parish-
curate idea of the relative value priests eight marks ; so that for
of money to commodities in the about £5 10s. a-year, a single man
thirteenth century, compared was expected to live cleanly and
with present prices ; but it may decently. These prices multi-
be mentioned that in 1445 (ac- plied by about twelve, would give
cording to Fleetwood's Chronican something approaching their
Pretwgum, 1707) the price of equivalent in modern money,
wheat was 4s. 6d. the quarter, It is true, manuscripts were in
and oats 2s.; bullocks and heifers many cases sold at fancy prices,
sold for 5s., and sheep 2s. 5^d. as books are now. But copying
each. In 1460 a gallon of ale had become a regular branch of
sold for a penny, which was also business. At Milan, in the four-
the ordinary day's wage of la- teenth century, about fifty per-
bourers and servants, in addition sons earned their living by it.
to meat and drink. As late as The ordinary charge for making
1558, a good sheep sold for 2s. lOd. a copy of the Bible was eighty
In 1414 the ordinary salary of Bologna livres, or equal to fifty-
chaplains was five or six marks three gold florins,
a-year (the mark being equal to
CHAP. I. POWER OF PRINTING. 8
Even the most advanced minds could exercise but
little influence on their age. They were able to ad-
dress themselves to only a very limited number of their
fellow-men, and in most cases their influence died with
them. The results of study, investigation, and ex-
perience remaining unrecorded, knowledge was for the
most part transmitted orally, and often inaccurately.
Thus many arts and inventions discovered by in-
dividuals became lost to the race, and a point of social
stagnation was arrived at, beyond which further pro-
gress seemed improbable.
This state of things was entirely changed by the
invention of printing. It gave a new birth to letters ;
it enabled books to be perpetually renovated and
multiplied at a comparatively moderate cost, and to
diffuse the light which they contained over a much
larger number of minds ; it gave a greatly increased
power to individuals and to society, by facilitating the-
intercourse of educated men of all countries with each
other. Active thinkers were no longer restricted by
the limits of their town or parish, or even of their
nation or epoch ; and the knowledge that their printed
words would have an effect where their spoken words
did not reach, could not fail to stimulate the highest
order of minds into action. The permanency of in-
vention and discovery was thus secured ; the most
advanced point of one generation became the starting-
point of the next ; and the results of the labours of
one age were carried forward into all the ages that
succeeded.1
The invention of printing, like most others, struggled
slowly and obscurely into life. The wooden blocks or
1 See C. BABBAGE'S Ninth are letters to be magnified, which,
Bridgenater Treatise, pp. 52-6. as ships, pass through the vast
Lord Bacon has observed, — " If seas of time, and make ages so
the invention of ships was distant to participate of the wis-
thought so noble, which carrieth dom, illuminations, and inven-
ri^hes and commodities from tions, the one of the other 1 "
place to place, how much more
6 PRINTING OF THE BIBLE. CHAP. L
tablets of Laurence Coster were superseded by separate
types of the same material. Gutenberg of Mentz next
employed large types cut in metal, from which the
impressions were taken. And, finally, Gutenberg's
associate Schceffer cut the characters in a matrix, after
which the types were cast, and thus completed the art
as it now remains.
It is a remarkable circumstance, that the first book
which Gutenberg undertook to print with his cut-
metal types, was a folio edition of the Bible in the
Latin Vulgate, consisting of 641 leaves. When the
immense labour involved in carrying out such a work
is considered — the cutting by hand, with imperfect
tools, of each separate type required for the setting of
a folio page, and the difficulties to be overcome with
respect to vellum, paper, ink, and presswork — one
cannot but feel astonished at the boldness of the
undertaking ; nor can it be matter of surprise that
the execution of the work occupied Gutenberg and his
associates a period of from seven to eight years.1
1 The first Bible printed by it with astonishing success. It
Gutenberg is known as the was Minerva leaping on earth in
Mazarin Bible, from a copy of her divine strength and radiant
it having been found in Cardinal armour, ready at the moment of
Mazarin's library at Paris about her nativity to subdue and destroy
the middle of last century. John- her enemies. The Mazarin Bible
son, in his Typographic, (p. 17), is printed, some copies on vellum,
says : " It was printed with large some on paper of choice quality,
cut-metal types, and published in with strong, black, and tolerably
1450." Others give the date of handsome characters, but with
publication as five years later, in some want of uniformity, which
1455. Mr. Hallam inclines to has led, perhaps unreasonably, to
think that it was printed with doubt whether they were cast in
cast-metal types ; but there is a matrix. We may see in imagina-
reason to believe that the casting tion this venerable and splendid
of the types by a matrix was in- volume leading up the crowded
vented at a subsequent period. myriads of its followers, and
Mr. Hallam says : " It is a very imploring, as it were, a blessing
striking circumstance that the on the new art, by dedicating
high-minded inventors of this its first-fruits to the service of
great art tried at the very outset Heaven." — Literary History,
so bold a flight as the printing edition 1864, pp. 156-7.
an entire Bible, and executed
CHAP. I. GUTENBERQ, SCIKEFFER, FAUST. 7
We do not, however, suppose that Gutenberg and
his associates were induced to execute this first printed
Bible through any more lofty motive than that of
earning a considerable sum of money by the enterprise.
They were, doubtless, tempted to undertake it by the
immense prices for which manuscript copies of the
Bible were then sold ; and they merely sought to pro-
duce, by one set of operations, a number of duplicates
in imitation of the written character, which they hoped
to be able to sell at the manuscript prices. But, as
neither Gutenberg nor Schceffer were rich men, and as
the work involved great labour and expense while
in progress, they found it necessary to invite some
capitalist to join them ; and hence their communication
of the secret to John Faust, the wealthy goldsmith of
Mentz, who agreed to join them in their venture, and
supply them with the necessary means for carrying
out the undertaking.
The first edition of the printed Bible having been
disposed of, without the secret having transpired, Faust
and Schoaffer brought out a second edition in 1462,
which they again offered for sale at the manuscript
prices. Faust carried a number of copies to Paris to
dispose of, and sold several of them for 500 or 600
crowns, — the price then paid for manuscript Bibles.
But great was the astonishment of the Parisian copyists
when Faust, anxious to dispose of the remainder,
lowered his price to sixty and then to thirty crowns !
The copies sold having been compared with each other,
were found to be exactly uniform ! It was immediately
inferred that these Bibles must be produced by magic,
as such an extraordinary uniformity was considered
entirely beyond the reach of human contrivance. In-
formation was forthwith given to the police against
Faust as a magician. His lodgings were searched,
when a number of Bibles were found there complete.
The red ink, with which they were embellished, was
supposed to be his blood. It was seriously believed
that he was in league with the devil ; and he was
6 EXTENSION OF PRINTING. CHAP. I.
carried off to prison, from which he was only delivered
upon making a full revelation of the secret.1
Several other books, of less importance, were printed
by Gutenberg and Schoeffer at Mentz ; two editions of
the Psalter, a Catholicon, a Codex Psalmorum, and an
edition of Cicero's Offices ; but they were printed in
such small numbers, and were sold at such high prices,
that, like the manuscripts which they superseded, they
were only purchasable by kings, nobles, collegiate
bodies, and rich ecclesiastical establishments. It was
only after the lapse of many years, when the manufac-
ture of paper had become improved, and Schoeffer had
invented his method of cutting the characters in a
matrix, and casting the type in quantity, that books
could be printed in such forms as to be accessible to
the great body of the people.
In the meanwhile, the printing establishments of
Gutenberg and Schceffer were broken up by the sack
and plunder of Mentz by the Archbishop Adolphus in
1462. Their workmen having thus become dispersed,
and being no longer bound to secrecy, they shortly after
carried with them the invention of the new art into
nearly every country in Europe.
Wherever the printers set up their trade, they usually
began by issuing an edition of the Latin Bible. There
was no author class in those days to supply " copy "
enough to keep their presses going. Accordingly, they
fell back upon the ancient authors — issuing editions of
Livy, Horace, Sallust, Cicero, and portions of Aristotle,
with occasional devotional manuals ; but their favourite
book, most probably because it was the one most in
demand, was the Bible. Only twenty-four books were
published in Germany during the ten years that fol-
lowed the sack of Mentz ; but of these five were Latin
and two were German Bibles. Translators were at the
same time busily engaged upon it in different countries,
1 Such is supposed to be the believed that Faust died of the
origin of the tradition of "The plague at Paris iii 14G6.
Devil and Dr. Faustus." It is
CHAP. I. EDITIONS OF THE BIBLE. 9
and year by year the Bible became more accessible.
Thus an Italian version appeared in 1471, a Bohemian
in 1475, a Dutch in 1477, a French in 1477, and a
Spanish (Valencian) in 1478.1
The Bible, however, continued a comparatively scarce
and dear book ; being little known to the clergy
generally, and still less to the people. By many of the
former it was regarded with suspicion, and even with
hostility. At length, the number of editions of the
Bible which were published in Germany, as if heralding
the approach of the coming Reformation, seriously
alai'med the Church ; and in 1486 the Archbishop of
Mentz placed the printers of that city, which had been
the cradle of the printing-press, under strict censorship.
Twenty-five years later, Pope Alexander VI. issued a
bull prohibiting the printers of Cologne, Mentz, Treves,
and Magdeburg, from publishing any books without
the express licence of their archbishops. Although
these measures were directed against the printing of
religious works generally, they were more particularly
directed against the publication of the Scriptures in
the vulgar tongue.2
The printers, nevertheless, continued to print the
1 Lord Spencer's famous library Testament was first printed at
contains twenty editions of the Antwerp. The government tried
Bible in Latin, printed between to suppress the book, and many
the appearance of the Mazarin copies were seized and burnt.
Bible in 1450-5, and the year 1480 John Tyndale, a merchant of
inclusive. It also contains nine London, brother of the translator,
editions of the German Bible, having been convicted of reading
printed before the year 1495. — the New Testament,was sentenced
Kee EDWARDS on Libraries, p. by the venerable Sir Thomas
430. More " that he should be set
2 HALLAM — Literary History, upon a horse with his face to
ed. 1864. i. 254. No translation the tail, and have a paper pinned
of the Bible was permitted to upon his head, and many sheets
appear in England during the of New Testaments sewn to his
fifteenth century ; and the read- cloak, to be afterwards thrown
ing of Wycliffe's translation was into a great fire kindled in Cheap-
prohibited under penalty of ex- side, and then pay to the king a
communication and death. Tyn- fine which should ruin him."
dale's translation of the New
10 FEARS OF THE PRIESTS. CHAP. L
Bible, regardless of these prohibitions — the Old Testa-
ment in Hebrew, the New in Greek, and both in Latin,
German, French, and other modern languages. Finding
that the reading of the Bible was extending, the priests
began to inveigh against the practice from the pulpit.
" They have now found out," said a French monk, " a
new language called Greek ; we must carefully guard
ourselves against it. That language will be the mother
of all sorts of heresies. I see in the hands of a great
number of persons a book written in this language,
called ' The New Testament ' ; it is a book full of
brambles, with vipers in them. As to the Hebrew,
whoever learns that becomes a Jew at once." 1
The fears of the priests increased as they saw their
flocks becoming more intent upon reading the Scrip-
tures, and hearing them read, than attending mass ; and
they were especially concerned at the growing disposi-
tion of the people to call in question the infallibility of
the Church and the sacred character of the priesthood.
It was every day becoming clearer to them that if the
people were permitted to resort to books, and pray to
God .direct in their vulgar tongue, instead of praying
through the priests in Latin, the authority of the mass
would fall, and the Church itself would be endangered.2
1 SlSMOKDl — Histoire dcs and to examine how far religion
Franqais, xvi. 364. is departed from its primitive
2 Lord Herbert, in his Life of institution. And that, which
Henry VII. (p. 147), says that Car- particularly was most to be
dinal Wolsey stated the effects of lamented, they hath exhorted
printing to the pope in the follow- lay and ordinary men to read
ing terms : — " That his holiness the Scriptures, and to pray in
could not be ignorant what di- their vulgar tongue ; and if this
verse effects the new invention was suffered, besides all other
of printing had produced ; for it dangers, the common people at
had brought in and restored books last might come to believe that
and learning ; so together it hath there was not so much use of the
been the occasion of those sects clergy. For if men were per-
and schisms which daily appear suaded once they could make
in the world, but especially in their own way to God, and that
Germany ; where men begin now prayers in their native and or-
to call in question the present dinary language might pierce
faith and tenets of the Church, heaven as well as Latin, how
CHAP. I. PUBLICATION OF THE BIBLE. 11
A most forcible expression was given to this view by
the Vicar of Croydon in a sermon preached by him
at Paul's Cross, in which he boldly declared that
" we must root out printing, or printing will root out
us."
But printing could not be rooted out, any more than
the hand of Time could be put back. This invention,
unlike every other, contained within itself a self-pre-
serving power which ensured its perpetuation. Its
method had become known, and was recorded by itself.
Printed books were now part of the inheritance of the
human race; and though Bibles might lie burnt, — as
vast numbers of them were, so that they might be kept
out of the hands of the people, — so long as a single copy
remained, it was not lost, but was capable of immediate
restoration and of infinite multiplication.
The intense interest which the publication of the Bible
excited, and the emotion which it raised in the minds
of those who read it, are matters of history. At this
day, when Bibles are common in almost every house-
hold, it is perhaps difficult to appreciate the deep feel-
ings of awe and reverence with which men for the first
time perused the sacred volume. We have become so
familiar with it, that we are apt to look upon it merely
as one amongst many books, — as part of the current
literature of the day, or as a record of ancient history,
to be checked off" by the arithmetician or analysed
by the critic.
It was far different in those early times, when the
Bible was rare and precious. Printing had brought
forth the Book, which had lain so long silent in manu-
script beneath the dust of old libraries, and laid it
before the people, to be read by them in their own
tongue. It was known to be the charter and title-deed
much would the authority of the troducing all persons to dispute,
mass fall ! For this purpose, to suspend the laity between fear
sir.ce printing could not be put and controversy. This at most
down, it was best to set up learn- would make them attentive tb
ir£ against learning ; and by in- their superiors and teachers."
12 READING OF THE BIBLE. CHAP.i.
of Christianity — the revelation of God's will to man ;
and now, to read it, or hear it read, was like meeting
God face to face, and listening to His voice speaking
directly to them.
At first it could only be read to the people ; and in
the English cathedrals, where single copies were placed,
chained to a niche, eager groups gathered round to
drink in its living truths. But as the art of printing
improved, and copies of the Bible became multiplied
in portable forms, it could then be taken home into the
study or the chamber, and read and studied in secret.
It was found to be an ever-fresh gushing spring of
thought, welling up, as it were, from the Infinite. No
wonder that men pondered over it with reverence, and
read it with thanksgiving ! No wonder that it moved
their hearts, influenced their thoughts, gave a colour
to their familiar speech, and imparted a bias to their
whole life I1
To the thoughtful, the perusal of the Bible gave
new views of life and death. Its effect was to make
those who pondered its lessons more solemn ; it made
the serious more earnest, and impressed them with a
deeper sense of responsibility and duty. To the poor,
the suffering, and the struggling, it was the aurora of
a new world. With this Book in their hands, what to
them were the afflictions of time, which were but for a
moment, working out for them " a far more exceeding
and eternal weight of glory" ?
It was the accidental sight of a copy of one of
Gutenberg's Bibles in the library of the convent of
Erfurt, where Luther was in training for a monk, that
1 The perusal and study of the to all who studied it closely. This
Bible in the fifteenth and six- tendency is noticeable in the early
teenth centuries exercised an im- English writers — in Latimer,
portant influence on literature in Bradford. Jewell, More, Brown,
all countries. The great writers Bacon, Milton, and others. Cole-
of the period unconsciously ridge has said, " Intense study of
adopted Bible phraseology to a the Bible will keep any writer
large extent — the thoughts of from being vulgar in point ol
Scripture clothing themselves in style."
language which became habitual
CHAP. l. LUTHER AND THE BIBLE. 13
fixed his destiny for life.1 He opened it, and read with
inexpressible delight the history of Hannah and her
son Samuel. " 0 God ! " he murmured, '4 could I but
have one of these books, I would ask no other treasure !"
A great revolution forthwith took place in his soul.
He read, and studied, and meditated, until he fell
seriously ill. Dr. Staupitz, a man of rank in the
Church, was then inspecting the convent at Erfurt, in
which Luther had been for two years. He felt power-
fully attracted towards the young monk, and had much
confidential intercourse with him. Before leaving,
Staupitz presented Luther with a copy of the Bible —
a Bible all to himself, which he could take with him
to his cell and study there. " For several years," said
Luther afterwards, " I read the whole Bible twice in
every twelvemonth. It is a great and powerful tree,
each word of which is a mighty branch ; each of these
branches have I shaken, so desirous was I to learn
what fruit they every one of them bore, and what they
could give me." 2
This Bible of Luther's was, however, in the Latin
Vulgate, a language known only to the learned. Several
translations had been printed in Germany by the end
of the fifteenth century ; but they were unsatisfactory
versions, unsuited for popular reading, and were com-
paratively little known. One of Luther's first thoughts,
therefore, was to translate the Bible into the popular
speech, so that the people at large might have free
access to the unparalleled Book. Accordingly, in 1521,
he began the translation of the New Testament during
1 "I was twenty years old," again: "Dr. Usinger. an Augustan
said Luther, " before I had ever monk, who was my preceptor at
seen the Bible. I had no notion the convent of Erfurt, used to say
that there existed any other Gos- to me, ' Ah, brother Martin ! why
pels or Epistles than those in the trouble yourself with the Bible ?
service. At last I came across a Bather read the ancient doctors
Bible in the library at Erfurt, who have collected for you all
and used often to read it to Dr. its marrow and honey. The Bible
Staupitz with still increasing won- itself is the cause of all our
der. "— TISCHREDEN— Table Talk, troubles.' " — TISCHREDEN. p. 7.
(Frankfort, 1568), p. 255. And 2 TlSCHREDEN, p. 311.
U LUTHER'S WRITINGS. CHAP. 1
his imprisonment in what he called his Patmos — the
•castle of Wartburg. It was completed and published
in the following year; and two years later, his Old
Testament appeared.
None valued more than Luther did, the invention
of printing. " Printing," said he, " is the latest and
greatest gift by which God enables us to advance the
things of the Gospel." Printing was, indeed, one of the
prime agents of the Reformation. The ideas had long
been bom, but printing gave them wings. Had the
writings of Luther and his fellow-labourers been con-
fined only to such copies as could have been made by
hand, they would have remained few in number, been
extremely limited in their effects, and could easily have
been suppressed and destroyed by authority. But the
printing-press enabled them to circulate by thousands
all over Germany.1 Luther was the especial favourite
of the printers and booksellers. The former took pride
in bringing out his books with minute care, and the
latter in circulating them. A large body of ex-monks
lived by travelling about and selling them all over
Germany. His books were also carried abroad, — into
Switzerland, Bohemia, France, and England.2
The printing of the Bible was also carried on with
great activity in the Low Countries. Besides versions
in French and Flemish for the use of the people in the
Walloon provinces, where the new views extensively
1 At Nuremberg, at Strasburg, ductions, he sang, in under-tones,
even at Mentz, there was a con- ''The Nightingale of Wittenberg,"
stant struggle for Luther'a last and the song was taken up and
pamphlets. The sheet, yet wet, resounded all over the land.—
was brought from the press under MICHELET — Life of Luther, pp.
some one's cloak, and passed from 70, 71 .
shop to shop. The pedantic 2 Works printed in Germany or
bookmen of the German trades' in the Flemish provinces, where
unions, the poetical tinmen, the at first the administration con-
literary shoemakers, devoured the nived at the new religion, were
good news. Worthy Hans Sachs imported into England, and read
raised himself above his wonted with that eagerness and delight
commonplace ; he left his shoe which always compensate the
half-made, and with his most risk of forbidden studies. — RAL-
high-flown verses, his best pro- LAM— Hist, of England, i. p. 82.
CHAP. 1. DEMAND FOR THE SCRIPTURES. 16
prevailed, various versions in foreign tongues were
printed for exportation abroad. Thus Tyndale, unable
to get his New Testament printed in England, where
its perusal was forbidden, had tbe first edition printed
at Antwerp in 1526,1 as well as IT/TO subsequent editions
at the same place. Indeed, Antwerp seems at that time
to have been the head-quarters of Bible-printing. No
fewer than thirteen editions of the Bible and twenty-
four editions of the New Testament, in the Flemish or
Dutch language, were printed there within the first
thirty-six years of the sixteenth century, besides
various other editions in English, French, Danish, and
Spanish.2
An eager demand for the Scriptures had by this time
sprung up in France. Several translations of portions
of the Bible appeared there towards the end of the
fifteenth century ; but these were all superseded by a
version of the entire Scriptures, printed at Antwerp
in successive portions, between the years 1512 and
1530. This translation was the work of Jacques le
1 A complete edition of the tion directing a large Bible to be
Enprlish Bible, translated partly set up in every parish-church,
by Tyndale and partly by Cover- while at the same time Bibles
dale, was printed at Hamburg in were authorised to be publicly
1535; and a second edition, edited sold. The Spencer collection
by John Rogers, under the name contains copies of fifteen English
of " Thomas Matthew," was editions of the Bible printed be-
printed at Marlborow in Hesse, tween 1536 and 1581 ; showing
in 1537. Tyndale suffered mar- that the printing-press was by
tyrdom at Vilvorde, near Brus- that time actively at work in
sels. in 1536, yet he died in the England. Wycliffe's translation,
midst of victory ; for before his though made in 1380, was not
death no fewer than fourteen printed until 1731.
editions of the New Testament, * " There can be no sort of
several of them of two thousand comparison," says Mr. Hallam,
copies each, had been printed ; " between the number of these
and at the very time when he died, editions, and consequently the
the first edition of the Scriptures eagerness of the people of the
printed in England was passing Low Countries for biblical know-
through the press. Cranmer's ledge, considering the limited ex-
Bible, so called because revised tent of their language, and any-
by Cranmer, was published in thing that could be found in the
1539-40. In the year 1542, Protestant states of the empire."
Henry VIII. issued a proclania- —Literary JUatory, i. 387.
16 THE REFORMATION IX FRAXCE. CHAP. I.
Fevre or Faber, of Etaples, and it formed the basis of
all subsequent editions of the French Bible.
The effects were the same wherever the Book ap-
peared, and was freely read by the people. It was
followed by an immediate reaction against the super-
stition, indifferentism, and impiety, which generally
prevailed. There was a sudden awakening to a new
religious life, and an anxious desire for a purer faith, —
less overlaid by the traditions, inventions, and corrup-
tions, which impaired the efficacy, and obscured the
simple beauty, of Christianity. The invention of
printing had also its political effects. For men to be
able to read books, and especially the Scriptures, in
the common tongue, was itself a revolution. It roused
the hearts of the people in all lands, producing com-
motion, excitement, and agitation. Society became
electric, and was stirred to its depths. The sentiment
of Right was created, and the long down-trodden
peasants — along the Rhine, in Alsace, and Suabia —
raised their cries on all sides, demanding freedom from
serfdom, and to be recognised as Men. Indeed, this
electric fervour and vehement excitement throughout
society was one of the greatest difficulties that Luther
had to contend with, in guiding the Reformation in
Germany to a successful issue.
The ecclesiastical abuses, which had first evoked the
indignation of Luther, were not confined to Germany,
but prevailed all over Europe. There were Tetzels
also in France, where indulgences were things of com-
mon traffic. Money had to be raised by the Church ;
for the building of St. Peter's at Rome must be paid for.
Each sin had its price, each vice its tax. There was a
regular tariff for peccadilloes of every degree, up to the
greatest crimes. The Bible, it need scarcely be said,
was at open war with this monstrous state of things ;
and the more extensively it was read and its precepts
became known, the more strongly were these practices
condemned. Hence the alarm occasioned at Rome by
the rapid extension of the art of printing and the
CHAP. I. JACQUES LEFEVRE. 17
increasing circulation of the Bible. Hence also the
prohibition of printing vv'hich shortly followed, and the
burning of the printers who printed the Scriptures, as
well as of the persons who were found guilty of read-
ing them.
The first signs of the Reformation in France showed
themselves in the town of Meaux, about fifty miles
north-east of Paris — not far distant from the then
Flemish frontier. It was a place full of working-
people — mechanics, wool-carders, fullers, cloth-makers,
and artizans. Their proximity to Flanders, and the
similarity of their trade to that of the larger Flemish
towns, occasioned a degree of intercourse between
them, which doubtless contributed to the propagation
of the new views at Meaux, where the hearts of the
poor artizans were greatly moved by the tidings of
the Gospel which reached them from the north.
At the same time men of learning in the Church had
long been meditating over the abuses which prevailed
in it, and devising the best means of remedying them.
Among the most earnest of these was Jacques Lefevre,
a native of Etaples in Picardy. He was a man of great
and acknowledged learning, one of the most dis-
tinguished professors in the university of Paris. The
study of the Bible produced the same effect upon his
mind as it had done on that of Luther ; but he was
a man of far different temperament, — gentle, retiring,
and timid, though not less devoted to the cause of
truth. He was, however, an old man of seventy. His
life was fast fleeting ; but yet there was a world lying
all in wickedness about him. He translated the four
Gospels into French in 1523; had them printed at
Antwerp ; and put them into circulation. He found
a faithful follower in Guillaume Farel — a young,
energetic, and active man, — who abounded in those
qualities in which the aged Lefevre was so deficient.
Another coadjutor shortly joined them — Guillaume
Bric.ormet, Count of Montbrun and Bishop of Meaux,
who also became a convert to the new doctrines.
18 THE BISHOP OF ME A UX. CTTATM.
The bishop, on taking charge of his diocese, had
been shocked by the disorders which prevailed there, —
by the licentiousness of the clergy, and their general
disregard for religious life and duty. As many of them
were non-resident, he invited Lefevre, Farel, and others,
to occupy their pulpits and preach to the people — the
bishop preaching in his turn ; and the people flocked
to hear them. The bishop also distributed the four
Gospels gratuitously among the poor, and very soon a
copy was to be found in almost every workshop in
Meaux. A reformation of manners shortly followed.
Blasphemy, drunkenness, and disorder disappeared;
and the movement spread far and near.
It must not be supposed, however, that the sup-
porters of the old Church were indifferent to these
proceedings. At first they had been stunned by the
sudden spread of the new views and the rapid increase
of the " Gospellers," as they were called throughout the
northern provinces; but they speedily rallied from
their stupor. They knew that power was on their
side, — the power of kings and parliaments, and their
agents; and they loudly called them to their help,
to prevent the spread of heresy. At the same time,
Rome, roused by her danger, availed herself of all
methods for winning back her wandering children, by
force if not by suasion. The Inquisition was armed
with new powers ; and wherever heresy appeared, it
was crushed, unsparingly, unpityingly. No matter
what the rank or learning of the suspected heretic
might be, he must satisfy the tribunal before which he
was brought, or die at the stake.
The priests and monks of Meaux, though mostly
absentees, finding their revenues diminishing, appealed
for help to the Sorbonne, the Faculty of Theology at
Paris ; and the Sorbonne called upon parliament at once
to interpose with a strong hand. The result was, that
the Bishop of Meaux was heavily fined ; and he shrank
thenceforward out of sight, and ceased to give any
further cause for offence. But his disciples were less
CHAP. I. SURGING OF PRINTERS. 19
pliant, and continued boldly to preach the Gospel.
Jean Leclerc was burnt alive at Metz, and Jacques
Pavent and Louis de Berguin on the Place de Greve
at Paris. Farel escaped into Switzerland, and there
occupied himself in printing copies of Lefevre's New
Testament, thousands of which he caused to be dis-
seminated throughout France by the hands of pedlars.
The Sorbonne then proceeded to make war against
books, and the printers of books. Bibles and New
Testaments were seized and burnt. But more Bibles
and Testaments seemed to rise, as if by magic, from
their ashes. The printers who were convicted of
printing Bibles were next seized and burnt. The
Bourgeois de Paris1 gives a detailed account of the
human sacrifices offered up to ignorance and intoler-
ance in that city during the six months ending June
1534, from which it appears that twenty men and one
woman were burnt alive. One was a printer of the
Rue St. Jacques, found guilty of having " printed the
books of Luther." Another, a bookseller, was burnt
for " having sold Luther." In the beginning of the
following year, the Sorbonne obtained from the King
an ordinance, which was promulgated on the 26th of
February 1535, for the suppression of printing !
It was too late ! The art was now full born, and
could no more be suppressed than light, or air, or life.
Books had become a public necessity ; they supplied
a great public want ; and eve'ry year saw them multi-
plying more abundantly.2
1 MICHELET says the Sour- volumes had been printed, the
geois de Paris (Paris, 1854) was greater part in folio ; and that
not the publication of a Protes- between 1500 and 1536 eighteen
tant, which might be called in more millions of volumes had
question, but of a " very zealous been printed. After that it is
Catholic." — Histoire de France impossible to number them. In
au Scizi&me Sibcle, viii.,p. 411. 1533 there had already been
eighteen editions of the German
* It has been calculated (by Bible printed at Wittemberg,
Daunon, Petit, Rudel, Taillandier, thirteen at Augsburg, thirteen at
and others) that by the end of the Strasburg, twelve at Basle, and
fifteenth century four millions of BO on. Schceffer, in his Influence
20 ORIGIN OF " HUGUENOT." CHAP. L
The same scenes were enacted all over France,
wherever the Bible had penetrated and found followers.
In 1545, the massacre of the Vaudois of Provence was
perpetrated, accompanied by horrors which it is im-
possible to describe. This terrible persecution, how-
ever, did not produce its intended effect ; but, on the
other hand, it was followed by a strong reaction in the
public mind against the fury of the persecutors. The
king, Francis I., complained that his orders had been
exceeded ; but he was sick and almost dying at the
time, and had not the strength to prosecute the
assassins.
There was, however, a lull for a time in the violence
of the persecutions, during which the new views made
rapid progress ; and men of rank, of learning, and ot
arms, ranged themselves on the side of "The Religion."
Then arose the Huguenots or French Protestants,1 who
shortly became so numerous as to constitute a con-
siderable power in the state, and to exercise, during
the next hundred years, a most important influence on
the political history of France.
The origin of the term Huguenot is extremely
obscure. It was at first applied to them as a nick-
name ; and, like the Gueux of Flanders, they assumed
and bore it with pride. Some suppose the term to
be derived from Huguon, a word used in Touraine to
signify persons who walk at nights in the streets, — the
early Protestants, like the early Christians, having
chosen that time for their religious assemblies. Others
are of opinion that it was derived from a French and
faulty pronunciation of the German word Eidgenossen,
of Luther on Education, says tha^ being based on the reading of the
Luther's Catechism soon ran to Gospel). Religionaries, or Those
100,000 copies. Printing was at of the Religion. The name Pro-
the same time making rapid testant was not applied to them
strides in France, England, and until the end of the seventeenth
he Low Countries. century — that term originally
1 The followers of the new characterising the disciples of
views called themselves at first the Lutheran Befonnation in
Gospellers (from their religion Germany.
CHAP. 1. FIRST IXDEX EXPURGATORIV8. 21
or confederates — the name given to those citizens of
Geneva who entered into an alliance with the Swiss
cantons to resist the attempts of Charles III., Duke
of Savoy, against their liberties. The confederates
were called Eiynots ; and hence, probably, the deriva-
tion of the word Huguenots. A third surmise is, that
the word was derived from one Hugues, the name of a
Genevese Calvinist.1
Further attempts continued to be made by Home to
check the progress of printing. In 1599, Pope Paul IV.
issued the first Index Expurgatorius, containing a list
of the books expressly prohibited by the Church. It
included all Bibles printed in modern languages — of
which forty-eight editions were enumerated ; while
sixty-one printers were put under a general ban, and
all works of every description issuing from their presses
were forbidden. Notwithstanding, however, these and
similar measures — such as the wholesale burning of
Bibles wherever found — the circulation of the Scriptures
rapidly increased, and the principles of the Reformation
prevailed more and more throughout the northern
nations.
N, in his Etyrrwlogteche it was originally used as a nick-
Untersuchungen avfdem Gebiete name, and derived from the word
der Romanischen Sprachen, gives Hughues — '• the name of some
no fewer than fifteen supposed heretic or conspirator " — and the
derivations of the word Huguenot, French diminutive ot — as Jacot,
but inclines to the opinion that Margot, Jeannot, etc.
CHAPTER II.
EPISODE IN THE LIFE OF PALISSY.
AT the time when the remarkable movement we have
rapidly sketched, was sweeping round the frontiers of
France, from Switzerland to Brabant — and men were
everywhere listening with eagerness to the promulga-
tion of the new ideas, — there was wandering along the
Rhine a poor artizan, then obscure, but afterwards
famous, who was seeking to earn a living by the
practice of his trade. He could glaze windows, mend
furniture, paint a little on glass, draw portraits rudely,
gild and colour images of the Virgin, or do any sort of
work requiring handiness and dexterity. On an emer-
gency he would even undertake to measure land, and
was ready to turn his hand to anything that might
enable him to earn a living, and at the same time add
to his knowledge and experience. This wandering
workman was no other than Bernard Palissy, — after-
wards the natural philosopher, the chemist, the geologist,
and the artist, — but more generally known as the great
Potter.
Fortunately for our present purpose, Palissy was
also an author ; and though the works he left behind
him are written in a quaint and simple style, it is pos-
sible to obtain from certain passages in them a more
vivid idea of the times in which he lived, and of the
trials and sufferings of the Gospellers, of whom he was
one of the most illustrious, than from any other con-
temporary record. The life of Palissy, too, is eminently
illustrative of his epoch ; and provided we can but
accurately portray the life of any single man in rela-
CHAf. 11. PALlSSrS " WAXtoERSCtlAFT." 23
tion to his epoch, then biography becomes history in its
truest sense ; for history, after all, is but accumulated
biography.
From the writings of Palissy,1 then, we gather the
following facts regarding this remarkable man's life
and career. He was born about the year 1510, at La
Chapelle Biron, a poor village in Perigord, where his
father brought him up to his own trade of a glazier.
The boy was by nature quick and ingenious, with a
taste for drawing, designing, and decoration, which he
turned to account in painting glass and decorating
images for the village churches in his immediate
neighbourhood. Desirous of improving himself, at
the same time that he earned his living, he resolved
to travel into other districts and countries, accord-
ing to the custom of skilled workmen in those days.
Accordingly, so soon as his term of apprenticeship had
expired, he set out upon his " wanderschaft," at about
the age of twenty-one. He first went into the country
adjacent to the Pyrenees ; and his journeyings in those
mountain districts awoke in his mind that love for
geology and natural history which he afterwards pur-
sued with so much zeal. After settling for a time at
Tarbes, in the High Pyrenees, he proceeded northward,
through Languedoc, Dauphiny, part of Switzerland,
Alsace, the Duchies of Cleves and Luxemburg, and
the provinces of the Lower Rhine, to Ardennes and
Flanders.
It will be observed that Palissy's line of travel lay
precisely through the provinces in which the people
had been most deeply moved by the recent revolt of
Luther from Rome. In 1517 the Reformer had pub-
licly denounced the open sale of indulgences by " the
profligate monk Tetzel," and affixed his celebrated
ninety-five Theses to the outer pillars of the cathedral
1 (Emrcs Completes de Bernard notes et une Notice Historiqne,
Palissy, Edition conforme aux Par PAUL-AXTOINE CAP, Paris,
textes originaux imprime.s da 1844.
vivant de 1'auteur ; avec des
24 PALISSY TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY. CHAP. n.
of Wittemberg.1 The propositions were at once printed
in thousands, read, devoured, and spread abroad in
every direction. In 1518, Luther appeared, under the
safe-conduct of the Elector of Saxony, before the Pope's
legate at Augsburg ; and in 1520 he publicly burnt the
Pope's bull at Wittemberg, amidst the acclamations
of the people. Ah1 Germany was now in a blaze,
and Luther's books and pamphlets were everywhere
in demand. It was shortly after this, that Palissy
travelled through the excited provinces. Wherever he
went he heard of " Luther," " the Bible," and the New
Revelation which the latter volume had brought to
light. The men of his own class, with whom he most
freely mixed in the course of his travels — artists,
mechanics, and artizans 3 — were full of the new ideas
which were stirring the heart of Germany. These
were embraced with especial fervour by the young
and the energetic. Minds formed and grown old in
the established modes of thought, were unwilling to be
disturbed, and satisfied to rest as they were. " Too old
for change " was their maxim. But it was different
with the young, the ardent, and the inquiring — who
looked before rather than behind, to the future rathei
than the past. These were, for the most part, vehement
in support of the doctrines of the Reformation.
1 A copy of the Indulgence of the ninety-five Theses against
issued by Pope Leo X. for the Indulgences and other Papal
rebuilding of St. Peter's, is now practices, posted by Luther on
to be seen in the King's Library, the doors of the church of Wit-
British Museum. It is well temberg, on the 31st of October,
worthy of general perusal. 1517. It is also close to Luther's
The Indulgence was printed appeal to a General Council, dated
in the year 1517, under the November, 1518.
direction of Albert, Archbishop
of Mentz and Magdeburg; and * An old Roman Catholic his-
it was sold by John Tetzel and toriansays: "Above all, painters.
Bernardinus Samson as sub- watchmakers, sculptors, gold-
commissaries. The manner in smiths, booksellers, printers, and
which Tetzel carried on the others, who from their callings
traffic led, everybody knows, to have some nobility of mind, v/ere
the remonstrance of Luther, and among the first easily surprised."
the Reformation. It is placed — REMOND — Histolre de V Here-
close to the original printed copy tie de cc Siecle, book vii., 931.
CHAP. n. PALISSY READS THE BIBLE. 25
Palissy was then of an age at which the mind is
most open to receive new impressions. He was, more-
over, by nature a shrewd observer and an independent
thinker ; and he could not fail to be influenced by the
agitation which stirred society to its depths. Among
the many things which Palissy learned inNVthe course
of his travels, was the art of reading printed books ;
and one of the books which he learned to read, and
most prized, was the printed Bible, the greatest marvel
of his time. It was necessarily read in secret, for the
ban of the Church was still upon it; but the prohibi-
tion was disregarded, and probably gave an additional
zest to the study of the forbidden book. Men recognised
each other's love for it as by a secret sympathy ; and
they gathered together in workshops and dwellings to
read and meditate over it, and exhort one another
from its pages. Among these was Palissy, who, by the
time he was thirty years old, had become a follower of
the Gospel, and a believer in the religion of the Open
Bible.1
Palissy returned to France in 1539, at a time when
persecution was at the hottest; when printing had been
suppressed by royal edict ; when the reading of the
Bible was prohibited on pain of death; and when many
were being burnt alive for reading and believing it.
The persecution especially raged in Paris and the neigh-
bourhood,— which may account for Palissy's avoid-
ance of the city. An artist so skilled as he was, would
naturally have desired to settle there ; but he passed
it, and went on to settle at Saintonge, in the south-
1 We cannot learn from Palissy's esdits, statuts et ordonnances :
writings what his creed was. He et en regardant quel estoit son
never once mentions the names vouloir, j'ay trouv6 que, par tes-
of either Luther or Calvin ; but tament dernier, il a oommande a
he often refers to the " teachings ses heritiers qu'ils eussent a man-
of the Bible," and " the statutes ger le pain au labeur de leurs
and ordinances of God as revealed corps, et qu'ils eussent a multi-
in His Word." Here, for exam pie, plier les talens qu'ils leur avoit
is a characteristic passage: — laissez par son testament." —
" Je n'ay trouve rien meilleur JRecepte Veritable, 1563.
que sume le conseil de Dieu, ses
26 PALISSTS PURSUIT OF THE ENAMEL. CHAP. It.
western corner of France. There he married, and began
to pursue his manifold callings, — more particularly
glass-painting, portrait-painting, and land-measuring.
He had a long and hard fight for life. His employment
was fitful, and he was often reduced to great straits.
Some years after his settlement at Saintes, while still
struggling with poverty, chance threw in his way an
enamelled cup of Italian manufacture, of great beauty,
which he had no sooner seen, than he desired to imitate
it ; and from that time, the determination to discover
the art by which it was enamelled possessed him like a
passion.
The story of Palissy's heroic ardour in prosecuting
his researches in connection with this subject, is well
known : how he built furnace after furnace, and made
experiments with them again and again, only to end in
failure ; how he was all the while studying the nature
of earths and clays, and learning chemistry, as he de-
scribed it, " with his teeth " ; how he reduced himself
to a state ef the most distressing poverty, which he
endured amidst the expostulations of his friends, the
bitter sarcasms of his neighbours, and, what was still
worse to bear, the reproaches of his wife and children.
But he was borne up throughout by his indomitable
determination, his indefatigable industry, and his irre-
pressible genius.
On one occasion he sat by his furnace for six suc-
cessive days and nights without changing his clothes.
He made experiment after experiment, and still the
enamel did not melt. At his last and most desperate
experiment, when the fuel began to run short, he rushed
into his house, seized and broke up sundry articles
of furniture, and hurled them into the furnace to keep
up the heat. No wonder that his wife and children,
as well as his neighbours, thought the man had gone
mad. But he himself was in a measure compensated
by the fact that the last great burst of heat had melted
the enamel ; for when the common clay jars, which
had been put in brown, were taken out after the
CHAP. it. PALISSY'S TROUBLES AND SUFFERINGS. 27
furnace had cooled, they were found covered with the
white glaze of which he had been so loug and so
furiously in search. By this time, however, he had
become reduced to a state of the greatest poverty.
He had stripped his dwelling, he had beggared him-
self, and his children wanted food. " I was in debt,"
said he, " at many places, and when two children were
at nurse, I was unable to pay the nurse's wages. No
one helped me. On the contrary, people mocked me,
saying, ' He will rather let his children die of hunger
than mind his own business.' " Others said of him
that he was " seeking to make false money." These
jeerings of the townsfolk reached his ears as he passed
along the streets of Saintes, and cut him to the
heart.
Like Brindley the engineer, Palissy betook himself
to bed to meditate upon his troubles and study how
to find a way out of them. " When I had lain for
some time in bed," says he, "and considered that if
a man has fallen into a ditch his first duty is to try
and raise himself out of it, I, being in like case, rose
and set to work to paint some pictures, and by this
and other means I endeavoured to earn a little money.
Then I said to myself that all my losses and risks
were over, and there was nothing now to hinder me
from making good pieces of ware; and so I began
again, as before, to work at my old art." l But he was
still very far from success, and continued to labour on
for years amidst misfortune, privation, and poverty.
" All these failures," he continues, "occasioned me such
labour and sadness of spirit, that before I could render
my various enamels fusible at the same degree of heat,
I was obliged, as it were, to roast myself to death at
the door of the sepulchre ; moreover, in labouring at
such work, I found myself, in the space of about ten
years, so worn out that I was shrunk almost to a
skeleton ; there was no appearance of muscle on my
SY— DC I' Art dc Terre: (Euyres Completes, p. 318.
28 PALISSTS PERSECUTION'S AXD SORROWS. CHAP. II.
arms or legs, so that my stockings fell about my feet
when I walked abroad."
His neighbours would no longer have patience with
him ; he was despised and mocked by them all. Yet
he persevered with his art, and proceeded to make
vessels of divers colours, which he at length began to
be able to sell, and thus earned a slender maintenance
for his family. " The hope which inspired me," says
he, " enabled me to proceed with my work, and when
people came to see me I sometimes contrived to enter-
tain them with pleasantry, while I was really sad at
heart. . . . Worst of all the sufferings I had to endure
were the mockeries and persecutions of those of my
household, who were so unreasonable as to expect
me to execute work without the means of doing so.
For years my furnaces were without any covering or
protection ; and while attending to them I have been
exposed for nights, at the mercy of the wind and the
rain, without any help or consolation, save it might be
the meauling of cats on the one side, or the howling
of dogs on the other. Sometimes the tempest would
beat so furiously against the furnaces that I was com-
pelled to leave them, and seek shelter within doors.
Drenched by rain, and in no better plight than if I
had been dragged through rnire, I have gone to lie
down at midnight, or at daybreak, stumbling into the
house without a light, and reeling from one side to
another, as if I had been drunken, my heart filled
with sorrow at the loss of my labour after such long
toiling. But, alas! my home proved no refuge for
me ; for, drenched and besmeared as I was, I found in
my chamber a second persecution worse than the first,
which makes me even now marvel that I was not
utterly consumed by my many sorrows." 1
In the midst of his great distress, religion came to
Palissy as a consoler. He found comfort in recalling
to mind such passages of the Bible as he carried in
1 PALISSY— De VArt de Terre: (Eurres Completes, p. 321.
CHAP. ii. PALISSY AND TUE GOSPEL. 29
his memory, and which from time to time gave him
fresh hope. " You will thus observe," he afterwards
wrote, " the goodness of God to me : when I was in
the depth of suffering because of my art, He consoled
me with His Gospel ; and when I have been exposed
to trials because of the Gospel, then it has been with
my art that He has consoled me." When wandering
abroad in the fields about Saintes, at the time of his
greatest troubles, Palissy's attention was wont to be
diverted from his own sorrows by the wonderful
beauty and infinite variety of nature, of which he was
a close and accurate observer. What were his petty
cares and trials in sight of the marvellous works of
God, which spoke in every leaf, and flower, and plant,
of His infinite power, and goodness, and wisdom ?
" When I contemplated these things," says Palissy, " I
have fallen upon my face, and, adoring God, cried to
Him in spirit, ' What is man that Thou art mindful of
him ? Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to Thy name be
the honour and the glory ! '" l
There were already many followers of The Religion
in Saintes and the adjoining districts. It so happened
that Calvin had, at an early period in his life, visited
Saintonge, and sowed the seeds of the Gospel there.
Calvin was a native of Noyon, in Picardy, and had
from his childhood been destined for the priesthood.
When only twelv •». years old, he was provided with a
benefice ; but by the time he grew to man's estate, a
relative presented him with a copy of the Bible, and
he became a religious reformer. He began, almost
involuntarily, to exhort others from its pages, and pro-
ceeded to preach to the people at Bourges, at Paris,
and in the adjoining districts. From thence he went
into Poitou and Saintonge on the same errand, holding
his meetings late at night or early in the morning, in
retired places — in a cellar or a garret — in a wood or in
the opening of a rock in a mountain-side ; a hollow
1 PAJLISSY— Recevte Veritable: (Euvres Completes, pp. 11G-17.
SO PALISSY A REFORMED PREACHER. CHAP, n
place of this sort, near Poitiers, in which Calvin and
his friends secretly celebrated the Lord's Supper, being
still known as " Calvin's Cave."
We are not informed by Palissy whether he ever
met Calvin in the course of his mission in Saintouge,
which occurred shortly after the latter had settled at
Saintes ; but certain it is, that he was one of the first
followers and teachers of the new views in that neigh-
bourhood. Though too poor himself to possess a copy
of the Bible, Palissy had often heard it read by others
as well as read it himself while on his travels; and his
retentive memory enabled him to carry many of its
most striking passages in his mind,1 which he was ac-
customed to reproduce in his ordinary speech. Hence
the style of his early writings, which is strongly marked
by Biblical terms and similitudes. He also contrived
to obtain many written extracts from the Old and
New Testament, for the purpose of reading them to
others ; and these formed the texts from which he ex-
horted his fellow Gospellers. For Palissy was one of
the earliest preachers of the Reformed Church in the
town of Saintes, if he was not indeed its founder.
The meetings of the little congregation soon became
popular in Saintes. The people of the town went at
first out of curiosity to observe their proceedings, and
they were gradually attracted by the earnestness of the
worshippers. The members of "The Religion" were
known throughout the town to be persons of blameless
lives, peaceable, well-disposed, and industrious, who
commanded the respect even of their enemies. At
length the Roman Catholics of Saintes began to say to
1 The Vaudois peasantry knew was appointed to preserve in his
the Bible almost by heart. Raids memory a certain number of
were from time to time made chapters ; and thus, though their
into their district by the agents Bibles were seized and burnt, too
of the Romish Church for the pur- Vaudois were still enabled to
pose of seizing and burning all refer to their Bibles through the
such copies of the Bible as they memories of the young minds in
could lay hands on. Knowing which the chapters were pre-
this, the peasants formed societies served,
of young persons, each of whom
CTTAP. it. ItELICIOUS PEACEFULNESS AT SAINTES. 31
their monks and priests — "See these ministers of the
new religion : they make prayers ; they lead a holy
life : why cannot you do the like ? " The monks and
priests, not to be outdone by the men of The Religion,
then began to pray and to preach like the ministers ;
" so that in those days," to use the words of Palissy,
" there were prayers daily in this town, both on one
side and the other."
So kindly a spirit began to spring up under the
operation of these influences, that the religious exercises
of both parties — of the old and the new religion —
were for a short time celebrated in several of the
churches by turns ; one portion of the people attending
the prayers of the old Church, and another portion the
preachings of the new ; so that the Catholics, returning
from celebrating the mass, were accustomed to meet the
Huguenots on their way to hear the exhortation, as is
usual in Holland at this day. The effects of this joint
religious action on the morals of the people, are best
described in Palissy's own words : —
"The progress made by us was such, that in the course of a
few years, by the time that our enemies rose up to pillage and
persecute us, lewd plays, dances, ballads, gormandizings, and
superfluities of dress and head-gear, had almost entirely ceased.
Scarcely was any bad language to be heard on any side ; nor
were there any more crimes and scandals. Lawsuits greatly
diminished ; for no sooner had any two persons of The Religion
fallen out, than means were found to bring them to an agree-
ment ; moreover, very often before beginning any lawsuit, the
one would not begin it before first exhorting the other. When
the time for celebrating Easter drew near, many differences, dis-
sensions, and quarrels, were thus stayed and settled. There
were then no questions amongst them, but only psalms, prayers,
and spiritual canticles ; ' nor was there any more desire for lewd
1 The Reformers early enlisted sents that God has given us.
music in their service, and it Satan cannot make head against
exercised a powerful i <ifluence in music." Luther was a poet as
extending the new movement well as a musician ; his " Ein'
amongst the people. " Music," feste Burg ist unser Gott " (one of
said Luther. " is the art of the the themes of Meyerbeer's Hit-
prophets. It is ono of the most gucnots), which rang through all
magnificent and delightful pre- Germany, was the " Marseilfaise "
32 SOCIAL REFORMATION IN SAIXTE&. CHAP. n.
and dissolute songs. Indeed, The Religion made such progress,
that even the magistrates began to prohibit things that had
grown up under their authority. Thus, they forbade innkeepers
to permit gambling or dissipation to be carried on within their
premises, to the enticement of men away from their own homes
and families.
" In those days might be seen, on Sundays, bands of work-
people walking abroad in the meadows, the groves, and the
fields, singing psalms and spiritual songs, or reading to and
instructing one another. There might also be seen girls and
maidens seated in groups in the gardens and pleasant places,
singing songs on sacred themes ; or boys accompanied by their
teachers, the effects of whose instruction had already been so
salutary, that those young persons not only exhibited a manly
bearing, but a manful steadfastness of conduct. Indeed, these
various influences, working one with another, had already
effected so much good, that not only had the habits and modes
of life of the people been reformed, but their very countenances
themselves seemed to be changed and improved."
But this happy state of affairs did not last long.
While the ministers of the new religion and the priests
of the old (with a few exceptions) were thus working
harmoniously together at Saintes, events were rapidly
drawing to a crisis in other parts of France. The
heads of the Roman Catholic Church saw with alarm
of the Reformation. Luther had '• The Religion " as they marched
improvised both the words and along. But when the persecution
the music two days before his revived, the singing of psalms
appearance at the Diet of Worms. was one of the things most strictly
As he was journeying towards interdicted, even on pain of
that city, he caught sight of its death.
bell-towers in the distance, on Calvin also, at Geneva, took
which he rose up in his chariot great care to have the psalms set
and sang the noble song. to good music. He employed,
The French Reformers also en- with that object, the best corn-
listed music in their service at an posers, and distributed printed
early period. The psalms were copies of the music throughout all
translated by Clement Marot and the churches. Thus psalmody, in
Theodore de Beza, setto attractive which the whole people could join,
music, and sung in harmony in everywhere became an essential
family worship, in the streets and part of the service of the Re-
the fields, and in congregational formed Church ; the chaunts of
meetings. During a lull in the the Roman Catholics having, un-
persecution at Paris in 1558, til then, been sung only by the
thousands of persons assembled priests or by hired performers,
at the Pre"-aux-Clercs to listen to ' PALISST — CEuvres Completes:
ihe psalms sung by the men of JReccpte Veritable, p. 108;
CHAP. ii. POLITICAL PO WER OF THE HUG UENOTS. 3S
the rapid strides which the new religion was making,
and that a large proportion of the population were
day by day escaping from their control. Pope Pius
IV., through his agents, urged the decisive interference
ot the secular authority to stay the progress of heresy ;
and Philip II. of Spain supported him with all his
influence.
The Huguenots had now, by virtue of their increas-
ing numbers, become a political power. Many of the
leading politicians of France embraced the Reformed
cause, not so much because they were impressed by the
truth of the new views, as because they were capable
of being used as an instrument for party warfare.
Ambitious men, opposed to the court party, arrayed
themselves on the side of the Huguenots, caring per-
haps little for their principles, but mainly actuated by
the desire of promoting their own personal ends. Thus
political and religious dissension combined together to
fan the fury of the contending parties into a flame.
The councils of state became divided and distracted.
There was no controlling mediating power. The ex-
treme partizans were alike uncompromising; and a
social outbreak, long imminent, at length took place.
The head of the Church in France alarmed the King
with fears for his throne and his life. " If the secular
arm," said the Cardinal de Lorraine to Henry II.,
"fails in its duty, all the malcontents will throw
themselves into this detestable sect. They will first
destroy the ecclesiastical power, after which it will be
the turn of the royal power." The secular arm was
not slow to strike. In 1559, a royal edict was pub-
lished declaring the crime of heresy punishable by
death, and forbidding the judges to remit or mitigate
the penalty. The fires of persecution, which had long
been smouldering, again burst forth all over France.
The provincial Parliaments instituted Chambres ar-
dentes, so called because they condemned to the fire
all who were accused and convicted of the crime of
heresy. Palissy himself has vividly narrated the
3
34 OUTBREAK OF PERSECUTION. CHAP, n
effect of these relentless measures in his own district
of Saintes :
" The very thought of the evil deeds of those days," says he,
"when wjcked men were let loose upon us to scatter, over-
whelm, ruin, and destroy the followers of the Reformed faith,
fills my mind with horror. That I might be out of the way of
their frightful and execrable tyrannies, and in order not to be a
witness of the cruelties, robberies, and murders perpetrated in
this rural neighbourhood, I concealed myself at home, remain-
ing there for the space of two months. It seemed to me as if
during that time hell itself had broken loose, and that raging
devils had entered into and taken possession of the town of
Saintes. For in the place where I had shortly before heard only
psalms and spiritual songs, and exhortations to pure and honest
living, I now heard nothing but blasphemies, assaults, threaten-
ings, tumults, abominable language, dissoluteness, and lewd c.nd
disgusting songs, of such sort that it seemed to me as if all
purity and godliness had become completely stifled and ex-
tinguished. Among other horrors of the time, there issued forth
from the Castle of Taillebourg a band of wicked imps who
worked more mischief even than any of the devils of the old
school. On their entering the town, accompanied by certain
priests, with drawn swords in their hands, they shouted —
' Where are they ? let us cut their throats instantly ! ' though
they knew well enough that there was no resistance to them,
those of the Reformed Church having all taken to flight. To
make matters worse, they met an innocent Parisian in the
street, reported to have money about him, and him they set
upon and killed without resistance, first stripping him to his
shirt before putting him to death. Afterwards they went from
house to house, stealing, plundering, robbing, gormandising,
mocking, swearing, and uttering foul blasphemies both against
God and man."1
During the two months that Palissy remained
secluded at home, he occupied himself busily in per-
fecting the secret of the enamel, which he had so
long been in search of. Notwithstanding his devo-
tion to the exercises of his religion, he continued to
devote himself with no less zeal to the practice of
his art; and his fame as a potter . already extended
far beyond the bounds of his district. He had in-
deed been so fortunate as by this time to have
1 PALISSY —CEuvres Completes : Recejate Writable, p. 111.
. II. PALISSY SEIZED AND IMPRISONED. 35
attracted the notice of a powerful noble, the Duke
of Montmorency, Constable of France, then engaged
in building the magnificent chateau of Ecouen, at St.
Denis, near Paris. Specimens of Palissy's enamelled
tiles had been brought under the duke's notice, who
admired them so much, that he at once gave Palissy
an order to execute the pavement for his new resi-
dence. He even advanced a sum of money to the
potter, to enable him to enlarge his works, so as to
Complete the order with despatch.
Palissy's opinions were of course well known in his
district, where he had been the founder, and was in a
measure the leader, of the Reformed sect. The duke
was doubtless informed of the danger which his potter
ran, at the outbreak of the persecution ; and he accord-
ingly used his influence to obtain a safeguard for him
from the Duke of Montpensier, who then commanded
the royal army in Saintonge. But even this protection
was insufficient ; for, as the persecution waxed hotter,
and the search for heretics became keener, Palissy
found his workshop no longer safe. At length he
was seized, dragged from his home, and hurried off
by night to Bordeaux, to be put upon his trial for the
crime of heresy. And this first great potter of France
— this true man of genius, religion, and virtue — would
certainly have been tried and burnt, as hundreds more
were, but for the accidental circumstance that the
Duke of Montmorency was in urgent want of ena-
melled tiles for his castle-floor, and that Palissy was
the only man in France capable of executing them.
It is not improbable that the sending of Palissy to
Bordeaux, to be tried there instead of at Saintes, was
a ruse on the part of the Duke of Montpensier, to
gain time until the Constable could be informed of
the danger which threatened the life of his potter ;
for Palissy says, — " It is a certain truth, that had I
been tried by the judges of Saintes, they would have
caused me to die before I could have obtained from
you any help."
86 NONTMORENCT AND PALISST. CHAP. n.
But no sooner did Montmorency hear of the peril
into which his potter had fallen, and find that unless
he bestirred himself, Palissy would be burnt and his
tiles for Ecouen remain unfinished, than he at once
used his influence with Catharine de Medicis, the
Queen-mother, with whom he was then all-powerful,
and had him forthwith appointed " Inventor of Rustic
Figulines to the King." This appointment had the
effect of withdrawing Palissy from the jurisdiction
of the Parliament of Bordeaux, and transferring him
to that of the Grand Council of Paris, which was
tantamount to an indefinite adjournment of his case.
The now royal potter was accordingly released from
prison, and returned to Saintes to find his workshop
roofless and devastated. He at once made arrange-
ments for leaving the place; and, shaking the dust
of Saintes from his feet, he shortly after removed to
the Tuileries x at Paris, where he long continued to
carry on the manufacture of his famous pottery.
It is not necessary to pursue the career of Palissy
further than to add, that the circumstance of his
being employed by Catherine de Medicis had not the
slightest effect in inducing him to change his religion.
He remained a Huguenot, and stoutly maintained his
opinions to the last — so stoutly, indeed, that towards
the close of his life, when an old man of seventy-
eight, he was again arrested as a heretic and imprisoned
in the Bastile. He was threatened with death unless
he recanted. But though he was feeble, and trem-
bling on the verge of the grave, his spirit was as brave
as ever. He was as obstinate now in holding to his
1 Tuileries — so called from the neither more nor less than one
tile-works originally established of the ovens in which Palissy
there by Francis I. in 1518. A baked his chefs-ifusuvre. Several
remarkable and unexpected dis- moulds of faces, plants, animals,
covery was recently made in the etc., were dug up in an excellent
Place du Carrousel, while dig- state of preservation, and also
ging out the foundations for part some fragments of plates, etc.,
of the new buildings of the bearing the potter's well-knowa
Lonvre — recently completed — stamp.
CHAP. II. PALISSY' S END. 37
religion, as he had been more than thirty years before
in hunting out the secret of the enamel. Mathieu de
Launay, minister of state, one of the sixteen members
of council, insisted that Palissy should be publicly
burnt ; but the Due de Mayenne, who protected him,
contrived to protract the proceedings and delay the
sentence.
The French historian D'Aubigne' describes Henry
III. as visiting Palissy in prison with the object of
inducing him to abjure his faith. " My good man,"
said the King, " you have now served my mother and
myself for forty-five years. We have put up with
your adhering to your religion amid fires and mas-
sacres. But now I am so pressed by the Guise party,
as well as by my own people, that I am constrained to
leave you in the hands of your enemies ; and to-morrow
you will be burnt, unless you become converted."
"Sire," answered the unconquerable old man, "I am
ready to give my life for the glory of God. You
have said many times that you have pity on me :
now I have pity on you, who have pronounced the
words 'I am constrained.' It is not spoken like a
king, sire; it is what you, and those who constrain
you, the Guisards and all your people, can never
effect upon me, for I know how to die."
Palissy was not burnt, but died in the Bastile, after
about a year's imprisonment, courageously persevering
to the end, and glorying in being able to lay down his
life for his faith. Thus died a man of truly great and
noble character, of irrepressible genius, indefatigable
industry, heroic endurance, and inflexible rectitude —
one of France's greatest and noblest sons.
CHAPTER III.
PERSECUTIONS OF THE REFORMED.
PALISSY was not the only man of genius in France
who embraced the Reformed faith. The tendency of
books and the Bible was to stimulate inquiry on the
part of all who studied them ; to extend the reign of
thought, and emancipate the mind from the dominion
of human authority. Hence we find among the men
of " The Religion," Peter Ramus and Joseph Justus
Scaliger, the philosophers; Charles Dumoulin, the
jurist ; Ambrose Pard, the surgeon ; Henry Stephens
(or Estienne), the printer and scholar ; * Jean Cousin,
founder of the French school of painting ; Barthe'lemy
Prieur and Jean Goujon, sculptors; Jean Bullant,
Debrosses, and Du Cerceau, architects; Charles Gou-
dimel, the musical composer ; and Oliver de Serre, the
agriculturist. These were among the first men of their
time in France.
Persecution did not check the spread of the new
views : on the contrary, it extended them. The spec-
tacle of men and women publicly suffering death for
their faith, — expiring under the most cruel tortures
rather than deny their convictions, — arrested the at-
tention even of the most incredulous. Their curiosity
was roused ; they desired to learn what there was in
1 The Stephenses or Estiennes, ing Paris for Genera, where they
being threatened with persecu- settled, and a long succession of
tion by the Sorbonne, because illustrious scholars and printers
of the editions of the Bible and handed down the reputation of
New Testament printed by them, the family,
were under the necessity of leav-
CHAP. in. INFLUENCE OF T1IE HEFOHMED PAHlY. 39
the forbidden Bible to inspire such constancy and en-
durance; and they too read the book, and in many
cases became followers of The Religion.
Thus the new views spread rapidly all over France.
They not only became established in all the large
towns, but penetrated the rural districts, more espe-
cially in the south and south-east of France. The
social misery which pervaded these districts doubtless
helped the spread of the new doctrines among the
lower classes; for "there was even more discontent
abroad," said Brantome, "than Huguenotism." But
they also extended amongst the learned and the
wealthy. The heads of the house of Bourbon, An-
toine duke of Vendome and Louis prince of Conde',
declared themselves in favour of the new views. The
former became the husband of the celebrated Jeanne
D'Albret, Queen of Navarre, daughter of the Protes-
tant Margaret of Valois; and the last became the
recognised leader of the Huguenots. The head of the
Coligny family took the same side. The Montmoren-
cies were divided : the Constable halting between the
two opinions, waiting to see which should prove the
stronger; while others of the family openly sided with
the Reformed. Indeed, it seemed at one time as if
France were on the brink of becoming Protestant.
In 1561 the alarmed Cardinal de Sainte-Croix wrote
to the Pope, " The kingdom is already half Hugue-
not."
Unhappily for France, the country fell into the
hands of the Queen and the Guises. Henry II. had
married an Italian wife, Catherine de Medicis, niece of
the Pope. Great magnificence was displayed at the
Queen's coronation. Voluptuousness arid cruelty are
usually combined. The pomp of the tournaments was
combined with the burning of four Lutherans. Perse-
cution prevailed; and many persons of influence left
the country. The King confiscated to himself the pro-
perty of those who took refuge abroad. Pope Paul
IV., the Cardinal de Lorraine, the Sorbonne, and the
40 BURNING OF LUTHERANS. CHAP. ill.
priests demanded that the Inquisition should be estab-
lished in France. A bull to this effect was issued, and
the King confirmed it by an edict; but Parliament
would not enforce it, and France was spared the
disgrace.
The Doctors of the Sorbonne did their utmost to
inflame the minds of the people against the heretics.
They influenced the power of the State, which went on
persecuting and burning. Henry II. concluded a peace
with Spain, and entered into a treaty to exterminate
heresy ; and, in pledge of this treaty, his daughter
Elizabeth was to espouse Philip II. The Cardinal de
Lorraine proposed, as the most agreeable exhibition to
the Spanish ambassadors, who had arrived in Paris
to take away the betrothed princess, to bum before
them half a dozen Lutheran counsellors. " We must,"
to use his own expression, "give this junket to these
grandees of Spain."
The King died by the splinter of a lance received in
a tournament; and Francis II. reigned in his stead.
He was only sixteen years old, and was feeble in
body and mind ; so that his mother, Catherine de
Medicis, became the real governor of France. She was
surrounded by the Guises, Chatillons, Saint Andre's, the
Constable de Montmorency, and others, who worked
for their own advantage the fictitious royalty of
Francis II. Catherine de Medicis was artful and vin-
dictive, ambitious of power, devoid of moral feelings,
though of considerable intellectual capacity. De Felice
says that " no wife and mother of our kings has done so
much injury to France as this Italian woman." He adds :
" We are speaking of the Italians of the sixteenth cen-
tury— nobles and priests — who, eternally witnessing
at Rome, Florence, Naples, scenes of assassination,
poisoning, and the utmost turpitude, had sunk into
the very lowest state of depravity. It is they — his-
tory attests it — who planned, devised, and finally
executed in France the most monstrous crimes of the
epoch."
CHAP. IIL THE GUISES. 41
The Guises were the true leaders of the Roman
Catholic party. They formed a younger branch of the
family of the Dukes of Lorraine. Although foreigners
(for Lorraine formed then no part of France), they
soon acquired a considerable influence. Claude de Lor-
raine had by Antoinette de Bourbon six sons and four
daughters, all of whom rose to offices of distinction.
One of his daughters, Mary of Lorraine, married James
V. of Scotland, whose sole surviving issue was Mary,
afterwards Queen of Scots. At six years old Mary
was sent to France, where she was educated with
the King's daughters. At the age of sixteen she was
married to the Dauphin. When the Dauphin became
king, the Guises became all-powerful. Francis II. en-
trusted the government of France to Francis duke of
Guise and to his brother the Cardinal of Lorraine, both
uncles of Mary Stuart. The Duke obtained command
of the army ; the Cardinal became Archbishop of
Rheims, and the possessor of the enormous income of
three hundred thousand crowns annually.
These two foreigners, together with the Italian
Queen-mother, having virtually taken possession of
France, excited the envy of the French aristocracy.
The persecutions and burnings with which the Guises
treated the Huguenots, could not fail to excite their
hostility. Anthony of Bourbon, King of Navarre, and
Louis his brother, Prince of Conde, with the other
princes of the blood, and the great officers of State,
being indignant at seeing the supreme powers of France
in such hands, entered into a conspiracy against the
Guises, — proposing to expel the Lorraines and place the
government of France in the hands of French princes.
Louis de Conde' was the invisible chief of the con-
spiracy, and he induced many of his Huguenot followers
to join it. But Coligny and many other Huguenot
chiefs knew nothing about it, and many of those of
The Religion were strongly opposed to it. La Re-
naudie represented the political malcontents, and was
the visible chief of the conspiracy.
42 CONSPIRACY OF AMDOISE. CHAP. ill.
The advocate, Des Avenelles, informed the Guises
of the plot, and they immediately took steps to pre-
vent its success. The Court was then at Blois, — in
olden times the residence of the kings and princes
of France. The chateau is seated on the side of a
picturesque hill, overlooking the Loire. Being in-
capable of defence, the Guises removed the Court to
the magnificent castle of Amboise, situated a little
lower down the Loire, on the left bank of that beau-
tiful river.
Before the conspiracy had come to a head, the
Guises arrested those who had proposed to take part
in it. Twelve hundred prisoners were then brought
to Amboise to be executed.
To please the royal personages at the castle, they
were brought out to a balcony, that still exists, in order
to witness the butchery. There were then present, in
Court costumes, Francis II., King of France, and Mary
Stuart his wife, afterwards Queen of Scots ; Catherine
de Medicis; Charles and Henry, afterwards Charles IX.
and Henry III., Kings of France. The Cardinal of Lor-
raine was also present, as well as the Ladies in waiting.
La Renaudie, the chief of the conspiracy, was first
hung on a gibbet in the centre of the bridge over the
Loire. The remainder of the twelve hundred were
hung and beheaded within sight of the ladies. No
inquiry, no trial, was permitted. They were merely
executed and strung up as fast as possible. The
castle walls were decorated with their hanging
bodies. The wearied headsman below resigned his
axe, and consigned the remainder to other execu-
tioners, who, tying their feet and hands together,
threw them into the Loire, where they were drowned.
The butchery did not end so pleasantly after all. The
stench arising from the dead bodies was such, that the
Court was driven from the castle in the course of a
few days.
Francis II. and Queen Mary did not enjoy their
honours long. The King died in his seventeenth year,
CHAP. HI. FRANCIS IT. AND CHARLES JJT. 43
after a reign of seventeen months. As he had shown
some symptoms of rebelling against the constraints
to which he was subject, it was supposed that he had
died from poison. At all events, his funeral was dis-
regarded. He was borne to his grave by an old blind
bishop and two servitors. His queen, Mary, returned
to Scotland, to attempt to exercise upon a rougher,
but more sturdy people, the methods of government
which she had learnt from Catherine de Medicis and
her uncles the Guises.
When Francis II. was laid in his grave, Charles IX.,
eleven years old, was proclaimed king, Catherine de
Medicis regent, and Anthony de Bourbon lieutenant-
governor of the kingdom.
The Prince of Conde', who had been imprisoned,
was set free. The Constable, Anne de Montmorency,
resumed his office of Grand Master near the new
King. The Guises suffered a fall; but they bided
their time, and before long, they were once more to the
front again.
When Charles IX. succeeded to the throne, it was
found that the finances of the kingdom were in a
deplorable state. Society was distracted by the feuds
of the nobles — over whom, as in Scotland about the
same period, the monarch exercised no effective con-
trol.
France had, however, her Parliament or States-
General, which in a measure placed the King's govern-
ment en rapport with the nation. On its assembling
in December 1560, the Chancellor de L'Hopital ex-
horted men of all parties to rally round the young
King ; and, while condemning the odious punishments
which had recently been inflicted upon persons of the
Reformed faith, he announced the intended holding of
a national council, and expressed the desire that
thenceforward France should recognise neither Hugue-
nots nor Papists, but only Frenchmen.
A Roman Catholic himself, he advised his co-
religionists to adorn themselves with virtues and a
44 VIEWS OF THE STATES- GENERAL. CHAP. ill.
good life, and to attack their adversaries with the
arms of charity, of prayer, and of persuasion. " The
knife," he said, " avails but little against the mind.
Gentleness will do more than severity. Give up
those fiendish names, — Lutherans, Huguenots, Papists;
change them to the name of Christian."
This was the first utterance of the voice of con-
ciliation. The Protestants heard it with joy, their
enemies with rage. Jean Quintin, the representative
of the clergy, demanded that measures should be taken
to deliver France from heresy, and that Charles IX.
should vindicate his claim to the title of " Most Chris-
tian King." Lange, the spokesman of the Tiers Etat,
on the other hand, declared against " the three principal
vices of the ecclesiastics — pride, avarice, and igno-
rance " ; and urged that they should return to the
simplicity of the primitive Church. The nobles, di-
vided amongst themselves, demanded, some that the
preaching of the Gospel should be forbidden, and others
that there should be general freedom of worship;
but all who spoke were unanimous in acknowledging
the necessity for a reform in the discipline of the
Church.
While the state of religion thus occupied the Depu-
ties, an equally grave question occupied the Court.
There was no money in the exchequer ; the rate of
interest was twelve per cent.; and forty-three millions
of francs were required to be raised from an im-
poverished nation. The Deputies were alarmed at the
appalling figure which the chancellor specified ; and,
declaring that they had not the requisite power to
vote the required sum, they broke up amidst agitation,
leaving De 1'Hopital at variance with the Parliament,
which refused to register the edict of amnesty to the
Protestants which the King had proclaimed.
The King's minister, being most anxious to bring all
parties to an agreement if possible, and to allay the
civil discord which seemed to be fast precipitating
France into civil war, arranged, with the sanction of
CHAP. m. THE RELIGIOUS CONFERENCE. 45
the Queen-mother, for a conference between the heads
of the religious parties; and it took place at Vassy
in the presence of the King and his court, in August
1561. Pope Pius IV. was greatly exasperated when
informed of the intended conference, and declared
himself to have been betrayed by Catherine de
Medicis. It appeared to him that the granting of
such a conference was a recognition of the growing
power of Heresy in France, — the same heresy which
had already deprived Rome of her spiritual dominion
over England and Germany. The Pope's fears were,
doubtless, not without foundation ; and had France
at that juncture possessed a Knox or a Luther
— a Regent Murray or a Lord Burleigh — the results
would have been widely different. But as it was,
the Reformed party had no better leader than the
scholarly and pious Theodore de Beza ; and the con-
ference had no other result than to drive the contend-
ing parties more widely asunder than before.
Although a royal edict was published in January
1562, guaranteeing to the Protestants liberty of wor-
ship, the concession was set at defiance by the Papal
party, whose leaders urged on the people in many
districts to molest and attack the followers of the new
faith. The Papists denounced the heretics, and called
upon the Government to extirpate them ; the Hugue-
nots, on their part, denounced the corruptions of the
Church, and demanded their reform. There was no
dominant or controlling power in the State, which
drifted steadily in the direction of civil war. Both
parties began to arm ; and in such a state of things a
spark may kindle a conflagration.
The Queen-mother, being a profound dissimulator,
appeared still disposed to bargain with the Reformed,
She sounded Coligny as to the number of followers
that he could, in event of need, place at the service of
the King. His answer was, " We have two thousand
and fifty churches, and four hundred thousand men
able to bear arms, without taking into account our
46 MASSA ORE OF VASST. CHAP. in.
secret adherents."1 Such was the critical state of
affairs when matters were precipitated to an issue by
the action of the Duke of Guise, the leader of the
Catholic party.
On Christmas Day 1562, the Protestants of Vassy,
in Champagne, met to the number of about three
thousand, to listen to the preaching of the Word, and
to celebrate the Sacrament according to the practice
of their Church. Vassy was one of the possessions of
the Guises, the mother of whom, Antoinette de Bour-
bon, an ardent Roman Catholic, could not brook the
idea of the vassals of the family daring to profess a
faith different from that of their feudal superior.
Complaint had been made to her Grace, by the Bishop
of Chalons, of the offence done to religion by the pro-
ceedings of the people of Vassy ; and she threatened
them, if they persisted in their proceedings, with the
the vengeance of her son the Duke of Guise.
Undismayed by this threat, the Protestants of
Vassy continued to meet publicly, and listen to their
preachers, believing themselves to be under the pro-
tection of the law, according to the terms of the royal
edict. On the 1st of March 1563, they held one of
their meetings, at which about twelve hundred per-
sons were present, in a large barn which served for a
church. The day before, the Duke of Guise, accom-
panied by the duchess his wife, the Cardinal of Lor-
raine, and about two hundred men armed with arque-
busses and poniards, set out for Vassy. They rested
during the night at Dampmarten, and next morning
marched direct upon the congregation assembled in
the barn. The minister, Morel, had only begun his
opening prayer, when two shots were fired at the per-
sons on the platform. The congregation tried in vain
to shut the doors ; the followers of the Duke of Guise
burst in, and precipitated themselves on the unarmed
1 Nknoire» de Condi, ii. 687.
CTTAP. in. TRIUMPH OF THE DUKE OF GUISE. 47
men, women, and children. For an hour they fired,
hacked, and stabbed amongst them, the duke coolly
watching the carnage. Sixty persons of both sexes
were left dead on the spot; more than two hundred
were severely wounded ; the rest contrived to escape.
After the massacre, the duke sent for the local judge,
and severely reprimanded him for having permitted
the Huguenots of Vassy thus to meet. The judge
intrenched himself behind the edict of the King. The
duke's eyes flashed with rage, and striking the hilt of
his sword with his hand, he said, " The sharp edge of
this will soon cut your edict to pieces." l
The massacre of Vassy was the match applied to
the charge which was now ready to explode. It was
the signal to Catholic France to rise in mass against
the Huguenots. The clergy glorified the deed from
the pulpit, and compared the duke to Moses, when he
ordered the extermination of all who had bowed the
knee to the golden calf. A fortnight later, the duke
entered Paris in triumph, followed by about twelve
hundred noblemen and gentlemen, mounted on horses
richly caparisoned. The provost of merchants went
out to meet and welcome him at the Porte Saint-
Denis; and the people received him with immense
acclamations as the defender of the faith and the
saviour of the country.
Theodore de Beza, overwhelmed with grief, waited
on his Majesty, to complain of the gross violation of
the terms of the royal edict, of which the Guise party
had been guilty. But the King and the Queen-mother
were powerless amidst the whirlwind of excitement
which prevailed throughout Paris. They felt that
their own lives were not safe ; and they at once se-
cretly departed for Fontainebleau. The Duke of Guise
followed them, accompanied by a strong escort. Ar-
rived there, and admitted to an interview, the duke
Hiitoire des Ouerres Civiles de France* liv. ii. p. 379.
48 "CAPTAIN BURNS ENCHES." CHAP. m.
represented to Catherine that, in order to prevent the
Huguenots obtaining possession of the King's person,
it was necessary that he should accompany them to
Melun; but the Queen-mother might remain if she
chose. She determined to accompany her son. After
a brief stay, the Court was again installed in the
Louvre on the 6th of April. The Queen-mother was
thus for a time vanquished by the Guises.
The court waverers and the waiters on fortune at
once arrayed themselves on the side of the strong.
The old Constable de Montmorency, who had been
halting between two opinions, signalised his re-ad-
herence to the Church of Rome by a characteristic act.
Placing himself at the head of the mob, whose idol he
was desirous of being, he led them to the storming of
the Protestant church outside the Porte Saint-Jacques,
called the "Temple of Jerusalem." Bursting in the
doors of the empty place, they tore up the seats, and
placing them and the Bibles in a pile upon the floor,
they set the whole on fire, amidst great acclamations.
After this exploit, the Constable made a sort of trium-
phal entry into Paris, as if he had won some great
battle. Not content, he set out on the same day to
gather more laurels at the village of Popincourt, where
he had the Protestant church there set on fire ; but the
conflagration extending to the adjoining houses, many
of them were also burnt down. For these two great
exploits the Constable received the nickname of " Cap-
tain Burnbenches ! "
More appalling, however, than the burning of
churches, were the massacres which followed that of
Yassy all over France — at Paris, at Senlis, at Amiens,
at Meaux, at Chalons, at Troyes, at Bar-sur-Seine, at
Epernay, at Nevers, at Mans, at Angers, at Blois, and
many other places. At Tours the number of the slain
was so great, that the banks of the Loire were almost
covered with the corpses of men, women, and children.
The persecution especially raged in Provence, where
the Protestants were put to death after being sub-
CHAP. III. INTOLERANCE OF THE GUISES. 49
jected to a variety of tortures.1 Any detail of these
events would present only a hideous monotony of mas-
sacre. We therefore pass them by.
Measures were also taken by the Guise party to put
down the pestilent nuisance of printing ; and printers
were forbidden to print or publish anything with-
out permission, on pain of death. The decree to this
effect, relating to Lyons, bearing the signature of
Charles IX., and dated the 10th September 1563, is
still preserved at the Bibliotheque Impe'riale, Paris,
and runs as follows : — " It is forbidden to publish or
print any work or writing, in rhyme or in prose, with-
out the previous authorisation of our lord the King,
under pain of being hanged or strangled." Another
clause says : — " Three times every year a visit shall be
made in the shops and printing-houses of the printers
and booksellers of Lyons by two trustworthy persons
belonging to the Church, one representing the Arch-
bishop and the other the Chapter of the said city, and
they shall be accompanied by the seneschal of Lyons."
When the Roman Catholics fell upon the Huguenots
with such fury, the latter gave way in all directions.
The Prince of Conde, however, having raised the stand-
ard of resistance, numbers of followers gathered round
his banner. Admiral Coligny at first refused to join
him, but, yielding to the entreaties of his wife, he at
length placed himself by the side of Condd A period
of fierce civil war ensued, in which the worst passions
were evoked on both sides, and frightful cruelties were
perpetrated, to the shame of religion, in whose name
these things were done. The whole of France became
a battle-field. The Huguenots revenged themselves
on the assassins of their co-religionists, by defacing
and destroying the churches and monasteries. In their
1 PUAUX, ii. p. 152. This writer tholomew was not that of 1572,
says that, although the massacre but of 1562 — which year contained
of Saint Bartholomew is usually by far the most dolorous chapter
cited as the culminating horror in the history of French Protes-
of the time, the real Saint Bar- tantism.
4
f>0 ICONOCLASM AXJ) CIVIL WAR. CHAP. lil.
iconoclastic rage they hewed and broke the images, the
carvings, and the richly-decorated work of the cathe-
drals at Bourges, at Lyons, at Orleans, at Rouen, at
Caen, at Tours, and many other places. They tore
down the crucifixes, and dragged them through the
streets ; they violated the tombs of saints and sove-
reigns, and profaned the sacred shrines of the Roman
Catholics. " It was," says Henri Martin, " as if a blast
of the infernal trumpet had everywhere awakened the
spirit of destruction, and the delirious fury grew and
became drunk with its own excess." All this rage,
however, was but the inevitable reaction against the
hideous cruelties of which the Huguenots had so long
been the passive victims. They decapitated beautiful
statues of stone, it is true ; but the Guises had decapi-
tated the living men.
The year after the massacre of Vassy, the Duke of
Guise, during the siege of Orleans, was assassinated by
a Calvinist named Poltrot de Mend. Several of Pol-
trot's relations had been murdered by Roman Catholics.
Coligny was accused of complicity in the assassination,
but he himself denied all knowledge of it. Every
party was alike enraged. Many pacifications were
arrived at, but they brought no peace.
It is not necessary, in our rapid sketch, to follow
the course of the civil war. The Huguenots were
everywhere outnumbered. They fought bravely, but
they fought as rebels, — the King and the Queen-mother
being now at the head of the Guise party. In nearly
all the great battles fought by them, they were de-
feated,— at Dreux,1 at Saint Denis, at Jarnac, and at
1 This was nearly a drawn luc, one of the Guise generals,
battle ; and that it was decided says in his Commentaries : — " If
in favour of the Guise party, was this battle had been lost, what
almost entirely due to the Swiss would have become of Prance ?
infantry, who alone resisted the Its government would have been
shock of Conde's cavalry. When changed as well as its religion ;
Conde and Coligny withdrew for with a young king parties
their forces in good order, 8,000 can do what they mil."
men lay dead on •the field. Mont-
CHAP. ill. PEACE OF ST. GERtiAINS. .<>t
Montcontour. But they rallied again, sometimes in
greater numbers than before; and at length Coligny
was enabled to collect such reinforcements as seriously
to threaten Paris.
France had now been devastated throughout by the
contending armies, and many of the provinces were
reduced almost to a state of desert. The combatants
on both sides were exhausted, though their rancour
remained unabated. Peace, however, had at last be-
come a necessity ; and a treaty was signed at Saint
Germains, in 1570, by which the Protestants were
guaranteed liberty of worship, equality before the law,
and admission to the universities : while the four
principal towns of La Rochelle, Montauban, Cognac,
and La Charitd, were committed to them as pledges
of safety.
Under the terms of this treaty, France enjoyed a
state of peace for about two years ; but it was only
the quiet that preceded the outbreak of another storm.
CHAPTER IV.
THE DUKE OF ALVA IN FLANDEKS — MASSACEE OF
SAINT BARTHOLOMEW.
WHILE these events were proceeding in France, a
furious civil war was raging in Flanders, which then
formed part of the extensive dominions of Spain.
This war arose out of the same desire on the part
of the Roman Church to crush the Reform move-
ment, which had been making considerable progress
in the Low Countries.
The Provinces of the Netherlands had reached the
summit of commercial and manufacturing prosperity.
They were inhabited by a hard-working, intelligent,
and enterprising people — great as artists and mer-
chants, painters and printers, architects and iron-
workers,— as the decayed glories of Antwerp, Bruges,
and Ghent, testify to this day. Although the two
latter cities never completely recovered from the in-
juries inflicted on them by the tyranny of the trades'
unions, there were numerous other towns, where in-
dustry had been left comparatively free, in which the
arts of peace were cultivated in security. Under the
mild sway of the Burgundian dukes, Antwerp became
the centre of the commerce of northern Europe ; and
more business is said to have been done there in a
mcnth, than at Venice in two years when at the
summit of its grandeur. About the year 1550, it was
no uncommon sight to see as many as 2500 ships in
the Scheldt, laden with merchandise for all parts of
the world.
Such was the prosperity of Flanders, when Philip II.
CHAP. iv. PHILIP II. AND THE JESUITS. 53
of Spain succeeded to the rich inheritance of Bur-
gundy, on the resignation of Charles V. in the year
1566. Philip inherited from his father two passions
— hatred of the Reformed Church, and hatred of
France. To destroy the one and humiliate the other
constituted the ambition of his life; and to accom-
plish both objects, he spared neither the gold which
Pizarro and his followers had brought from the New
World, nor the blood of his own subjects.
Had his subjects been of the same mind with him-
self in religious matters, Philip might have escaped
the infamy which attaches to his name. But a large
proportion of the most skilled and industrious people
of the Netherlands, had imbibed the new ideas as to
reform in religion, which had swept over northern
Europe. They had read the newly- translated Bible
with avidity. They had formed themselves into re-
ligious communities, and appointed preachers and
teachers of their own. In a word, they were Pro-
testants ; and the King determined that they should
forthwith be reconverted to Roman Catholicism.
Shortly before this time, there had risen up in the
bosom of the Roman Catholic Chuich a man in all
respects as remarkable as Luther, who exercised as
extraordinary an influence, though in precisely the
opposite direction, upon the religious history of Europe.
This was Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits,
who infused into his followers a degree of zeal, energy,
devotion, and it must be added, unscrupulousness —
never stopping to consider the means, provided only
the ends could be accomplished — which told most
powerfully in the struggle of Protestantism for life or
death throughout northern Europe.
Loyola was born in 1491. He was wounded at the
siege of Painpeluna in 1520. After a period of medi-
tation and mortification, he devoted himself, in 1522, to
the service of the Church ; and in 1540, the Order of
the Jesuits was recognised at Rome and established
by papal bull. The Society early took root in France,
84 THE INQUISITION IN FLANDERS. CHAP, rv
where it was introduced by the Cardinal de Lorraine ;
and it shortly after acquired almost supreme influence
in the State. Under the Jesuits, the Romish Church,
reorganised and redisciplined, became one of the most
complete of spiritual machines. The Jesuits enjoined
implicit submission and obedience. Against liberty
they set up authority. To them the Individual was
nothing, the Order everything. They were vigilant
sentinels, watching night and day over the interests
of Rome. One of the first works to which they
applied themselves, was the extirpation of the here-
tics who had strayed from the fold. The principal
instrument which they employed with this object,
was the Inquisition ; and wherever they succeeded in
establishing themselves, that institution was set up
or was armed with fresh powers. They tolerated no
half-measures. They were unsparing and unpitying;
and wherever a heretic was brought before them, and
they had the power to deal with him, he must either
recant or die.
Accordingly, Philip had no sooner succeeded to the
Spanish throne, than he ordered a branch of the In-
quisition to be set up in Flanders, with the Cardinal
Granvelle as Inquisitor-General. The institution ex-
cited great opposition amongst all classes, Catholic
as well as Protestant. It very soon evoked much
hostility and resistance, which eventually culmi-
nated in civil war. Sir Thomas Gresham, writing
to Cecil from Antwerp in 1566, said, " There are
above 40,000 Protestants in this toune, which will
die rather than the word of God should be put to
silence."
The struggle which now began was alike fierce and
determined on both sides. It extended over many
years. The powerful armies which the King directed
against his revolted subjects, were led by able generals
— by the Duke of Alva, and Alexander Farnese, Prince
of Parma. In course of time, they succeeded in ex-
terminating or banishing the greater number of Pro-
CHAP. IV. RUIN OF FLANDERS. 55
testants south of the Scheldt ; at the same time that
they ruined the industry of Flanders, destroyed its
trade, and reduced the Catholics themselves to beggary.
Bruges and Ghent became crowded with thieves and
paupers. The busy quays of Antwerp were deserted,
and its industrious artizans, tradesmen, and merchants
lied from the place, leaving their property behind them,
a prey to the spoiler.1
The Duchess of Parma, writing to Philip in 1567,
said that " in a few days 100,000 men had already
left the country with their money and goods, and
that more were following every day." Clough, writ-
ing to Gresham from Antwerp in the same year,
Brad — "It is marveylus to see how the pepell packe
away from hense; some for one place, and some for
another ; as well the Papysts as the Protestants ; for
it is thought that howsomever it goeth, it cannot go
well here; for that presently all the welthy and rich
men of both sydes, who should be the stay of matters,
make themselves away." 2
The Duke of Alva carried on this frightful war of
extermination and persecution for six years, during
which he boasted that he had sent 18,000 persons to
the stake and the scaffold, besides the immense num-
bers destroyed in battles and sieges, and in the un-
recorded acts of cruelty perpetrated on the peasantry
by the Spanish soldiery. The sullen bigot, Philip II.,
heard of the depopulation and ruin of his provinces
without regret; and though Alva was recalled, the
war was carried on with increased fury by the generals
who succeeded him. What mainly comforted Philip
was, that the people who remained were at length
terrified into orthodoxy. The ecclesiastics assured
the Duke of Parma, the governor, that, notwith-
standing the depopulation of the provinces, more
1 It is said that for some years royal treasury of Philip twenty
the plunder of the murdered and millions of dollars annually,
proscribed Protestants of the 2 Flanders Correspondence -—
Low Countries brought into the State- Paper Office.
56 FLIGHT OF TIIE FLEMISH PROTESTANTS. CHAP. iv.
people were coming to them for confession and ab-
solution at the last Easter, than had ever come since
the beginning of the revolt. Parma immediately
communicated the consoling intelligence to Philip,
who replied, " You cannot imagine my satisfaction
at the news you give me concerning last Easter."
The flight of the Protestants from the Low Countries
continued for many years. All who were strong enough
to fly, fled; only the weak, the helpless, and the hope-
less, remained. The fugitives turned their backs on
Flanders, and their faces towards Holland, Germany,
and England. They fled thither with their wives and
children, and the goods that they could carry with
them, to seek new homes. Several hundred thousands
of her best artizans — clothiers, dyers, weavers, tanners,
cutlers, and iron-workers of all kinds — left Flanders,
carrying with them into the countries of their adop-
tion, their skill, their intelligence, and their spirit of
liberty. The greater number of them went directly
into Holland, then gallantly struggling with Spain
for independent existence. There they founded new
branches of industry, which eventually proved a source
of wealth and strength to the United Provinces. Many
others passed over into England, hailing it as " Asylum
Christi," and formed the settlements of which an ac-
count will be given in succeeding chapters.
Having thus led the reader up to the period at
which the Exodus of Protestants from the Low Coun-
tries took place, we return to France, where Catherine
de Medicis was stealthily maturing her plans for the
extirpation of heresy in the dominions of her son.
The treaty of 1570 was still observed. The Huguenots
were allowed to worship God after their own forms ;
and France was slowly recovering from the fratricidal
wounds which she had received during the recent
civil wars. We must, however, revert to an interview
which took place at Bayonne between Catherine de
Medicis and her daughter the Queen of Spain, who was
accompanied by the Duke of Alva, in the month of
CHAP. IV. INTERVIEW AT BAYONNE. 67
June 15G4. The Queen-mother had travelled south
to the Spanish frontier, to hold this interview, — of
sinister augury for the Huguenots.
The Queen-mother had by this time gone entirely
round to the Guise party, and carried her son, Charles
IX., with her. She was equally desirous, with the
Duke of Alva, to extirpate heresy. But while the
duke urged their immediate extermination, in accom-
plishing which he offered the help of a Spanish army,
Catherine, on the contrary, was in favour of tem-
porising with them. It might be easy for Philip to
extirpate heresy by force in Spain or Italy, where
the Protestants were few in number ; but the case was
different in France, where the Huguenots had shown
themselves able to bring large armies into the field, led
by veteran generals ; and where they actually held in
their possession many of the strongest places in France.
Alva urged that the Queen-mother should strike at
the leaders of the party, and cut them off at once.
He would rather catch the large fish and let the small
fry alone. " One salmon," said he, " is worth a thou-
sand frogs."1
The Queen-mother assured the duke of her ardent
desire to extirpate the Reformed religion; her only
difficulty consisted in the means by which it was to
be accomplished. She had been brought up in the
school of Machiavelli, and could bide her time.
In the meanwhile, she determined to retain the
governing power as much as possible in her own
hands. One method by which she effected this, was>
by the corruption of her son. " Will there be no pity/'
asked M. de Chateaubriand,7 "for this monarch of
twenty-three years of age, born with good talents,
with a taste for literature and the arts, a character
naturally generous, whom a detestable mother had
' Davila, the Italian historian, expression. Mathieu does the
a confidant of Catherine de same.
Medicis, mentions this famous a Etudes Histori^nes.
68 THE HUGUENOT CHIEFS BETRAYED. CHAP. rv'.
delighted to deprave by all the abuses of debauchery
and power ? "
The means which she employed are horrible to con-
template. She surrounded him with the worst speci-
mens of both sexes ; and the young king was brought
up amidst gambling, drunkenness, and debauchery of
the worst description. The Queen never lost sight of
the promise she had made to the Duke of Alva. The
Protestants were to be extirpated, and murder was to
be the instrument employed.
The young chief of the Huguenots, Henry of
Navarre, afterwards Henry IV., was invited, with
the other nobles and princes of the Reformers, to
attend Court at the nuptials of the King with Eliza-
beth of Austria, in 1570. But the rejoicings at Paris
had no temptations for the cautious chiefs. They
preferred to remain in security at their strong fortress
of Rochelle.
Another plan remained to be adopted. Catherine
de Medicis arranged a match between her daughter
Margaret and Henry of Navarre ; and she desired
the King to offer his sister's hand in marriage to the
chief of the Huguenots. The King wrote to Admiral
Coligny in terms of praise and admiration, and offered
to send an army into Flanders under his command,
to co-operate with the Prince of Orange against the
King of Spain.
Henry of Navarre accepted the proposal of marriage
with the King's sister. Admiral Coligny himself was
won over by the King's offered terms of reconciliation.
Jeanne D'Albret, Henry's mother, concurred in the
union; and the Huguenot chiefs generally believed that
the marriage might put an end to the feuds and civil
wars that had so long prevailed between the rival re-
ligious communities of France.
Pope Pius V., however, refused to grant the neces-
sary dispensation to enable the marriage to be cele-
brated according to the rites of the Roman Catholic
Church ; but the Queen-mother got over this little
CHAP. iv. MAURI AGE OF HENRY OF NAVARRE. .'9
difficulty by causing a dispensation to be forged in
the Pope's name.1
As Catherine de Medicis had anticipated, the heads
of the Keformed party, regarding the marriage as
an important step towards national reconciliation,
resorted to Paris in large numbers, to celebrate the
event and grace the royal nuptials. Amongst those
present were Admiral Coligny and his family. Some
of the Huguenot chiefs were not without apprehen-
sions for their personal safety, and even urged the
admiral to quit Paris. But he believed in the pre-
tended friendship of the Queen-mother and her son,
and insisted on staying until the ceremony was over.
The marriage was celebrated with great splendour in
the cathedral church of Notre Dame on the 18th of
August 1572, — the principal members of the nobility,
Protestant as well as Roman Catholic, being present
on the occasion. It was followed by a succession of
feasts and gaieties, in which the leaders of both par-
ties participated ; and the fears of the Huguenots were
thus completely disarmed.
On the day after the marriage, a secret council was
held in Catherine de Medicis' private chamber, at which
it was determined to proclaim a general massacre of
the Huguenots.
There were present at this meeting, Catherine, her
son Henry duke of Anjou, Henry of Guise, an Italian
bishop, and other favourites. There is no doubt about
the premeditation of the massacre. The French
Roman Catholic historians admit it, — De Thou,
Mdzeray, Pe're'fixe, and Mainbourg. The Italian his-
torians go further : Davila, Capilupi, Adrian!, and
Catena, admire the premeditation, and see in the
massacre the wonderful effect of the blessings of
Heaven !
The rejoicings on the occasion of the marriage lasted
for four days. On the fourth day, the 22nd of August,
1 VACVILUEBS — Hustoire de Jeanne d'Albrct,
60 ATTEMPT TO MURDER COLIGNT. CHAP. iv.
Coligny attended a council at the Louvre, and went
afterwards with the King to the tennis court, where
Charles and the Duke of Guise played a game against
two Huguenot gentlemen. In the meantime, Maure-
vel, the king's assassin (le tueur du roi) had been
sent for, and invited to murder the Huguenot leader.
The assassin lay in wait for the Admiral in a house
situated near the church of Saint Germain TAuxerrois,
between the Louvre and the Rue Be'thisy. As Coligny
was walking home from his interview with the King,
and reading a paper, Maurevel fired at him, and
wounded him in the hand and arm.1 Coligny suc-
ceeded in reaching his hotel, where he was attended
by Ambrose Pare', who performed upon him a painful
operation. The King visited the wounded man at his
hotel, professed the greatest horror at the dastardly
act which had been attempted, and vowed vengeance
against the assassin.
The conspirators met again on the following day,
the 23rd of August, at the Louvre. After dinner, the
Queen-mother entered the King's chamber; and, shortly
after, his brother, the Duke of Anjou, and several lords
of the Roman Catholic party. Charles was then in-
formed that the admiral (who was l}*ing helplessly
wounded) and his friends, were at that moment plot-
ting his destruction, and that if he did not anticipate
them, he and his family would be sacrificed. Mad-
dened by the malicious representations of his mother,
he cried out, " Kill all ! Kill all ! Let not one escape
to reproach me with the deed ! "
The plan of the massacre had already been ar-
ranged. Its execution was entrusted to the Dukes
of Guise, Anjou, Aumale, Montpensier, and Marshal
Favannes. Midnight approached, and the day of St.
Bartholomew arrived. It wanted two hours of the
appointed time. All was still at the Louvre. The
Maurevel, though his shot ceived from the King 2,000 crowns
failed, was rewarded, lie re- and the Collar of the Order.
CHAP. IV. MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW. 61
Queen-mother, and her two sons, Charles IX. and the
Duke of Anjou, went to an open balcony and awaited
the result in breathless silence. Two o'clock struck.
The die was cast. The great bell of the church of St.
Auxerrois rang to early prayer. It was the arranged
signal for the massacre to begin. Almost immediately
after, the first pistol-shot was heard. Three hundred
of the royal guard, who had been held in readiness
during the night, rushed out into the streets, shouting
" For God and the King ! " To distinguish themselves
in the darkness, they wore a white sash on the left
arm, and a white cross in their hats.
Before leaving the palace, a party of the guard
murdered the retinue of the young King of Navarre,
then the guests of Charles IX. in the Louvre. On the
evening of St. Bartholomew, and after he had given
his orders for the massacre, Charles redoubled his
kindness to the King of Navarre, and desired him
to introduce some of his best officers into the Louvre,
that they might be at hand in case of any disturb-
ances from the Guises. One by one these officers were
called by name from their rooms, and marched down
unarmed into the quadrangle, where they were hewed
down before the very eyes of their royal host. A
more perfidious butchery is probably not recorded in
history.
At the same time, mischief was afoot throughout
Paris. Le Charron, provost of the merchants, and
Marcel, his ancient colleague, had mustered a large
number of desperadoes, to whom respective quarters
had been previously assigned, and they now hastened
to enter upon their frightful morning's work.
The Duke of Guise determined to anticipate all
others in the murder of Coligny. Hastening to his
hotel, the Duke's party burst in the outer door. The
admiral was roused from his slumber by the shots fired
at his followers in the courtyard below. He rose from
his couch, and, though scarcely able to stand, he fled
to an upper chamber. Thither he was tracked by his
62 THE GENERAL SLAUGHTER. CHAP. IV.
assassins, who stabbed him to death as he stood lean-
ing against the wall. His body was flung out of the
window into the courtyard.
The Duke of Guise, who had been waiting impa-
tiently below, hurried up to the corpse, and wiping
the blood from the admiral's face, said, " I know him
— it is he ! " then, kicking the body with his foot, he
called out to his followers — " Courage, comrades, we
have begun well. Now for the rest ! The King
commands it." They then rushed out into the street.
The fury of the Court was seconded by the long-
pent-up hatred of the Parisians. The massacre of St.
Bartholomew was infinitely more ferocious than the
butcheries of the Revolutionists of 1792, or of the Com-
munists of 1871. The Huguenots were slaughtered in
their beds, or while endeavouring to escape unarmed,
without any regard to age or sex or condition. The
Court leaders galloped through the streets, cheering the
armed citizens to the slaughter. " Death to the Hu-
guenots ! " " Kill — kill : bleeding is as wholesome in
Augustas in May! " shouted the Marshal Favannes;
" Kill all ! Kill all ! God will know His own ! " Nor
were the populace slow to imitate the bloodthirsti-
ness of their superiors. The slaughter, however, was
not wholly confined to the Huguenots. Secret re-
venge and personal hatred embraced this glorious
opportunity; and many Roman Catholics fell by the
hands of these Roman Catholic assassins.
Firing was heard in every quarter throughout Paria
The houses of the Huguenots, which had been
marked, were broken into ; and men, women, and
children, were sabred or shot down. It was of no
use trying to fly. The fugitives were slaughtered in
the streets. The King himself seized his arquebus,
and securely fired upon his subjects from a window in
the Louvre.
Corpses blocked the doorways ; mutilated bodies lay
in every lane and passage ; and thousands were cast
into the Seine, then swollen by a flood.
CHAP. iv. EXD OF THE MASSACRE. 63
Jean Goujon, the famous sculptor, sometimes
styled the French Phidias, was shot from below, whilst
employed on a scaffold in executing the decorative
work of the old Louvre. Goudimal, the musical com-
poser, and Ramus, the philosopher, were slain during
the massacre. Before this time, Ramus's house had
been pillaged and his library destroyed. Dumoulin,
the great jurisconsult, had previously escaped by
death. "The execrable day of St. Bartholomew,"
said the Catholic Chateaubriand, "only made martyrs :
it gave to philosophical ideas an advantage over
religious ideas which has never since been lost."
At the same time, there were many who escaped the
swords of the assassins. Some of the Huguenots on
the southern side of the Seine had time to compre-
hend their position, and escaped. But what of Henry
of Navarre and Henry of Condd ? The King sent for
them during the massacre, and said to them in a
ferocious tone, " The mass, death, or the Bastille ! "
After some resistance, the princes consented to make
profession of the Romish faith.
Palissy, of whom we have already spoken, was
now an old man, and he owed his escape to the cir-
cumstance that he was then in the employment of
Catherine de Medicis. Ambrose Pare*, the surgeon,
also escaped. He had won the confidence of the
King, by saving him from the effects of a wound in-
flicted on him by a clumsy surgeon, when performing
the operation of venesection. Pard, though a Hugue-
not, held the important office of Surgeon-in-ordinary
to the King, and was constantly about his person. To
this circumstance he owed his escape from the
massacre, — the King having concealed him during the
first night in a private room adjoining his own
chamber.
The massacre lasted for three days. At length, on
the fourth day, when the fury of the assassins had
become satiated, and the Huguenots had for the
most part been slain, a dead silence fell upon the
64 REJOICINGS AT THE MASSACRE. CHAP. iv.
streets of Paris. Perhaps the people began to reflect
that it was their own countrymen whom they had slain.
These dreadful deeds at the capital were almost im-
mediately followed by similar massacres all over France.
From fifteen to eighteen hundred persons were killed
at Lyons ; and the dwellers on the Rhone, below that
city, were horrified by the sight of the dead bodies
floating down the river. Six hundred were killed at
Rouen ; and many more at Dieppe and Havre. The
massacre in the provinces lasted more than six weeks !
The numbers killed throughout France have been
variously estimated. Sully says 70,000 were slain ;
the Roman Catholic Bishop Perefixe has said that
100,000 were destroyed.
While the streets of Paris were still besmeared with
blood, the clergy celebrated an extraordinary jubilee.
They appeared in a general procession. They deter-
mined to consecrate an annual feast to a triumph so
glorious. A medal was struck in commemoration of the
event, bearing the legend," Piety has awakened justice " !
Catherine de Medicis wrote in triumph to the Duke
of Alva, to Philip II., and to the Pope, describing the
results of the three days' dreadful work in Paris.
When Philip heard of the massacre, he is said to have
laughed for the first and only time in his life. Rome
was thrown into a delirium of joy at the news. The
cannon were fired at St. Angelo ; Gregory XIII. and
his cardinals went in procession from sanctuary to
sanctuary to give God thanks for the massacre. The
subject was ordered to be painted, and a medal was
struck to celebrate the event, with the Pope's head
on one side, and on the other an angel, with a cross
in one hand and a sword in the other, pursuing and
slaying a band of flying heretics — strange work for an
angel ! The legend it bears — UGONOTTORUM STRAGES,
1572 (Massacre of the Huguenots, 1572) — briefly epi-
tomises the horrible story.1
1 An authentic copy of this medal is to be seen at the British
Museum.
CHAP. iv. DEATH OF CHARLES IX. to
The Cardinal of Lorraine, the head of the Guises,
was at Rome at the time of the massacre, and he cele-
brated the affair by a procession to the French church
of St. Louis. He had an inscription written upon the
gates in letters of gold, saying that " the Lord had
granted the prayers which he had offered to Him for
twelve years."
Cardinal Orsini was despatched on a special mission
to Paris to congratulate the King ; and on his passage
through Lyons, the assassins of the Huguenots, with the
blood on their hands scarcely dry, knelt before the holy
man in the cathedral, and received his blessing.
As for the wretched young King of France, the
terrible crime, to which he had been a party, weighed
upon his mind to the last moment of his life. He
survived the massacre for about two years ; but the
recollection of the scenes of which he had been a
witness, constantly haunted him. He became restless,
haggard, and miserable. He saw his murdered guests
sitting by his side, at bed and at board. "Ambrose,"
said he to his confidential physician, " I know not
what has happened to me these two or three days
past, but I feel my mind and body as much at enmity
with each other as if I was seized with a fever. Sleep-
ing or waking, the murdered Huguenots seem ever
present to my eyes, with ghastly faces, and weltering
in blood. I wish the innocent and helpless had been
spared." He died in tortures of mind impossible to be
described, — attended in his last moments, strange to
say, by a Huguenot physician and a Huguenot nurse :
one of the worst horrors that haunted him being that
his own mother was causing his death by slow poison-
ing,— an art in which he knew that great bad woman
to be fearfully accomplished.
To return to the surviving Huguenots, and the
measures adopted by them for self-preservation.
Though they were at first stunned by the massacre,
they were not slow to associate themselves together,
in those districts in which they wert> sufficiently strong,
5
66 VLtG&T AND RESISTANCE. CHAP. IV.
for purposes of self-defence. Along the western sea-
board, at points where they felt themselves unable to
make head against their persecutors, they put to sea in
ships and boats, and made for England, where they
landed in great numbers — at Rye, at Hastings, at
Southampton, and the numerous other ports on the
south coast. This was particularly the case with the
artizans and skilled labour class, whose means of
living are always imperilled by civil war. These fled
into England, to endeavour, if possible, to pursue
their respective callings in peace, and to worship God
according to conscience.
But the Huguenot nobles and gentry would not
and could not abandon their followers to destruction.
They gathered together in their strong places, and
prepared to defend themselves, by force against force.
In the Cevennes, Dauphiny, and other quarters, they
betook themselves to the mountains for refuge. In
the plains of the south, fifty towns closed their gates
against the royal troops. Wherever resistance was
possible, it showed itself. The little town of Sancerre
held out successfully for ten months, during which the
inhabitants, without arms, heroically defended them-
selves with slings called " the arquebusses of San-
cerre " ; enduring meanwhile the most horrible priva-
tions, and reduced to eat moles, snails, bread made of
straw mixed with scraps of horse-harness, and even
the parchment of old title-deeds.
A violent attack was made upon the Huguenot
fortress of La Rochelle by the Duke of Anjou,the King's
brother, — one of the principal authors of the massacre
of St. Bartholomew. While the assassins were at work
throughout the country, the Huguenots resorted to
their towns of refuge. La Rochelle was one of these.
Fugitives fled thither from all quarters. Sixteen hun-
dred citizens and 1500 strangers occupied the place.
The King despatched General Biron with a strong
force to garrison the town. It was too late : the citi-
zens refused to sdmit him. Hence it was determined
CHAP. IV. SIEGE OF LA ROCHELLE. G?
to attack La Rochelle, and reduce it to submission.
Towards the end of 1572, the place was accordingly
invested by the royal army, which continued to receive
reinforcements during the winter; and in spring the
Duke of Anjou arrived and assumed the chief com-
mand. He was accompanied by the Duke of Alen<jon,
the Guises, and other royalist chiefs, as well as by
Henry of Navarre and Henry Prince of Conde ; and
the Duke of Anjou now desired to show them, how
speedily and thoroughly he could root out this nest of
piracy and sedition.
La Rochelle was well provisioned and garrisoned.
The citizens had made good use of the winter months
to strengthen the ramparts, and improve the de-
fences of the place. The besiegers erected forts on
either side of the entrance to the port, and stationed a
large vessel, heavily armed with artillery, in the centre
of the bay, thus entirely cutting off all communication
with the place by sea.
La Noue, the commander of the garrison, was dis-
posed to negotiate, but the people would not hear of
capitulation on any terms. They knew that their ad-
miral, Jean Sore, and the Count of Montgomery, were
organizing in England an army of refugee Huguenots,
and they daily expected to see the sails of their
squadron in the offing. After five weeks' battering
of the walls, attended with many skirmishes, the
besiegers determined upon a general assault. The first
proved a total failure. Three other furious assaults
followed, which were repulsed with great loss. Four
times the Huguenot hymn,
" Que Dieu se montre settlement!"*
sounded as a chant of triumph from the towers of La
Rochelle ; and the besiegers were driven back again
and again. The fourth and most desperate assault was
made on the Bastion de 1'Evangile, now occupied as a
cemetery, at the north-west corner of the town. The
1 Psalm Ixviii. — The Huguenot war-song.
68 THE SIEGE RAISED. CHAP. IV.
Duke of Anjou had just been elected King of Poland,
and he determined to celebrate the event by the cap-
ture of the place. After a, feu dejoie from all the guns,
which were heavily shotted and pointed at the bastion,
a breach was made, and the troops rushed forward to
the assault. The defenders crowded the breach, despe-
rately contesting every inch of ground. The towns-
people and the women cheered them on. The women
even mounted the bastions and poured boiling tar
down on the assailants, as well as stink-pots, hot iron,
and showers of stones. The loss of life in the assault
was dreadful. The Bastion de 1'Evangile proved the
cemetery of the royal army. The Duke of Nevers, the
Marquis of Mayenne, Count Retz, Du Guast (the Duke
of Anjou's favourite), and many other distinguished
officers, were more or less severely wounded. Cosseins,
the captain of the guard who superintended the assas-
sination of Admiral Coligny, was one of the numer-
ous heap of dead that filled the breach.
By the month of June, 20,000 royalist troops had
perished, and the place was not yet taken. The pro-
visions of the besieged began to run short, but not
their courage. An unusual supply of shell-fish in the
bay and the harbour, seemed to them a supply of food
from heaven. Their admiral, Jean Sore, appeared
with a small squadron off the bay, but he could not
force the entrance to the harbour. The royal army,
however, did not renew the attack. The Duke of
Anjou, desirous of entering into possession of his king-
dom, negotiated for peace ; and a peace was arranged
on the 24th of June, 1573, by which the Protestants of
La Rochelle, Nismes, and Montauban were guaranteed
the free exercise of their religion. The siege was
raised three days later, after having lasted six months
and a half.
The Duke of Anjou then proceeded to Poland to
assume the rule of his kingdom. That country was
then in a wretched state. The people were discontented;
the aristocracy were venal : all were corrupt. Their
CHAP. iv. WARS OF THE LEAGUE. 69
new king very soon detested the country as well as
the people. At length, when Charles IX., tortured
in mind and body, died in May 1574, less than two
years after the massacre of Saint Bartholomew, the
Duke of Anjou suddenly returned to Paris to assume
the title of king, under the name of Henry III.
This was the third son of Catherine de Medicis'
who ruled France; but his reign was not more
successful than those of his elder brothers. He was
more bigoted than either of them; and though he
flogged himself in the public street, and went in
procession from shrine to shrine, yet he jeered at the
saints he pretended to reverence. He turned religion
into ridicule. He was surrounded by minions and
favourites, male and female, and made his court a
scene of debauchery.
The feeling of loyalty was rudely shaken, amongst
Roman Catholics as well as Huguenots. Disgust
took possession of the hearts of all honourable and
religious men. They saw knighthood covered with
disgrace, and religion degraded into ridicule. Henry of
Navarre, who had been detained at court, virtually a
prisoner, since the events of St. Bartholomew's Day,
made his escape, accompanied by the Prince of Conde.
They abjured the Roman Catholic religion, which had
been imposed upon them by Charles IX. under fear of
assassination. They set up the old standard of freedom
of religion, and levies flocked to their support. The
Queen-mother granted another peace. The worship
of the Huguenots was permitted in all parts of France,
except in Paris ; the massacre of Saint Bartholomew
was disavowed ; and several additional towns were
surrendered to the Protestants as pledges for their
security.
All this, however, was most galling to the Roman
Catholics. They were still determined to put down
the Reformed religion. Accordingly, in 1576, a Holy
League was formed, the object of which was to extir-
pate heresy, and to spare neither friend nor foe until
70 THE SEVEN CIVIL WARS. CHAP. iv.
the pestilence was banished. The leader of this
League was Henry of Guise, son of that old Francis
of Guise who had led the Royal assassins at the
massacre of Saint Bartholomew. Henry's whole heart
was devoted to Rome. He was the most popular
man in Paris. The Parisians even hailed him as
the future king of France. "No Protestant king of
Navarre," they cried : " we will have Catholic Henry
of Guise ! "
The States-General met at Blois, when the members,
being bribed or bullied by the Guises, passed an edict
interdicting the Huguenot faith, and withdrawing all
the guarantee towns from their hands. This amounted
to a declaration of war. The King himself joined the
League, and instead of being the King of the nation,
degraded himself into being the King of a party.
But the policy of the Medicis and the Guises was of
a piece throughout.
The Holy League was followed by a dreary and
wasteful succession of civil wars. The country was
overrun by lawless troops, who robbed, burned, and
murdered everywhere. There were seven civil wars in
all. One was called the " War of the Lovers," having
originated in an intrigue of the court. Another was
called the "War of the three Henrys," the King having
separated himself from Henry of Guise, but refused to
unite with Henry of Navarre. Another was called the
" War of the Barricades," the troops of Henry of Guise
having attacked the Royal troops (chiefly Swiss) in
the streets of Paris. Henry III. then fled to Chartres,
leaving Paris in the possession of Henry of Guise.
The States were summoned to meet at Blois in
December 1588. Henry of Guise went, at the earnest
invitation of the King, to meet him and the Queen-
mother. As he crossed the hall that led to the great
staircase, the King's attendants locked and barred
the gates. Guise entered the council-chamber, and
was warming himself at the fire, when he was sent for
by the King. Turning aside the tapestry hung over
CHAP. iv. MURDER OF IIEXKY OF GUISE. 71
the door, he was set upon by forty-five gentlemen-in-
waiting armed with daggers, and fell pierced with
more than forty wounds. The royal murderer, issuing
from the oratory of Catherine de Medicis, came to
look at the corpse of the once mighty Henry of Guise,
kicked it in the face (as Henry's father had before
kicked the face of Admiral Coligny), and saying, " Je
ne le croyais pas aussi grand," he ordered the corpse
to be burnt and the ashes thrown into the Loire.
On the following day, the Cardinal de Lorraine,
brother of the Duke, was murdered in another part
of the castle. Catherine de Medicis had now finished
the atrocities of her life. She died twelve days after
the murder of Henry of Guise ; and eight months
later, her son Henry III. was assassinated by Jacques
Clement, the Dominican monk, in the camp before
Paris, in August 1589.1
Such was the end of the Guises, and such was the
end of Catherine de Medicis and her sons. They all
carried on their foreheads the ineffaceable brand of
the massacre of Saint Bartholomew.
Henry III. was the last of the House of Valois. At
his death, Henry of Navarre, by virtue of his right as
next heir to the crown, succeeded to the throne of
France, as Henry the Fourth.
1 The murder of the Duke of us ! " Pope Sixtus V. declared,
Guise roused the hostility of the in full consistory, that the action
Papal party. Henry III. had of the martyr Jacques Clement
joined Henry of Navarre in en- might be compared, as regarded
deavouring to restore peace to the safety of the world, to the
France. The compromise proved incarnation and resurrection of
fatal to him. The regicide, Jesus Christ. " It was the policy
Jacques Clement, was canon- of this Pope," says Chateau-
ized from all the pulpits as briand, the Catholic historian,
" the most blessed child of " to encourage fanatics who were
Dominique, the Holy Martyr of ready to kill kings in the name
Jesus Christ." His portrait was of the Papal power." (Etudet
placed on the altars with these Historiyues, iv. 371.)
words : " Saint Jacques, pray for
CHAPTER Y.
RELATIONS OF ENGLAND WITH FRANCE AND SPAIN.
WHILE the rulers of France and Spain were making
these determined efforts to crush the principles of the
Reformation in their dominions, the Protestants of
England regarded their proceedings with no small
degree of apprehension and alarm. They had them-
selves suffered from sanguinary persecutions, during
the reign of Queen Mary, commonly known as " the
bloody." Mary had married Philip, Prince of Spain,
afterwards Philip II., one of the cruelest and most
bigoted of kings. Protestant writers affirm that
about two hundred and eighty victims perished at
the stake, from the 4th of February 1555, when
John Rogers was burnt at Smithfield, — to the 10th
of November 1558, when three men and two women
were burnt at Colchester. Dr. Lingard, after making
every allowance, admits that "in the space of four
years almost two hundred persons perished in the
flames for religious opinion."1
The bond which, for a time, united England to Spain,
had enabled Mary to engage in a war with France,
during which the English and Spanish troops fought
together. The only result, so far as England was
concerned, was that the town and territory of Calais,
which up to that time had been possessed by England,
were taken by the French under the Duke of Guise in
1 Among the most distin- St. David's, Latimer of "Worces-
guished sufferers were Hooper, ter, Ridley of London, and Gran-
bishop of Gloucester, Ferrar of mer, archbishop of Canterbury.
CHAP. v. ACCESSION OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. 73
1558, after a siege of a few days. This event, which
was regarded as a national disgrace, excited the bitterest
feelings of dissatisfaction throughout the country. But
towards the end of the year Mary died ; and the burnings
of heretics and the defeats of English soldiers came to
an end. She was succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth,
who completely reversed the policy which Mary and
her husband had adopted in England.
Though the Reformed faith had made considerable
progress in the English towns at the period of Eliza-
beth's accession to the throne in 1558, it was still in a
considerable minority throughout the country.1 The
great body of the nobility, the landed gentry, and the
rural population, adhered to the old religion ; while
there was a considerable middle class of Gallios, who
were content to wait the issue of events before de-
claring themselves for either side.
During the reigns which had preceded that of
Elizabeth, the country had been ill-governed and the
public interests neglected. The nation was in debt
and unarmed, with war raging abroad. But Elizabeth's
greatest difficulty consisted in the fact of her being a
Protestant, and the successor of a Roman Catholic
queen who had reigned with undisputed power during
the five years which preceded her accession to the
Soames, in Ms Elizabethan the mouth of the Severn) formed
g History, says that at the boundary of their respective
the accession of Elizabeth two- dominions. The Catholics of the
thirds of the people were Catho- north were headed by the great
lies. Butler, in his Memoirs of families (of the Percys and
the Catholics, holds the same Nevilles), and had on their side
view. On the other hand, Mr. all those advantages which the
Hallam, in his ConstitutioTial prescription of ages alone can
History, estimates that in 1559 give. To the south were the Pro-
the Protestants were two-thirds testants, who, though they could
of the population. Mr. Buckle in- boast of none of those great his-
clines to the view that the Protes- torical names which reflected a
tants were still in the minority. lustre on their opponents, were
" Of the two great parties," he supported by the authority of
says, " one occupied the north the government, and felt that en-
and the other the south, and a thusiastic confidence which only
line, drawn from the Hurnber (to belongs to a young religion."
74 PERILS OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. CHAP. v.
throne. No sooner bad she become queen than the
embarrassment of her position was at once felt. The
Pope denied her legitimacy, and refused to recognise
her authority. The bishops refused to crown her.
The two universities united with Convocation in
presenting to the House of Lords a declaration in
favour of the papal supremacy. The King of France
openly supported the claim of Mary Queen of Scots to
the English throne, and a large and influential body of
the nobility and gentry were her secret if not her
avowed partisans.
From the day of her ascending the throne, Eliza-
beth was the almost constant object of plots formed to
destroy her, and thus to pave the way for the re-estab-
lishment of the old religion. Elizabeth might possibly
have escaped from her difficulties by accepting the hand
of Philip II. of Spain, which was offered her. She
refused, and determined to trust to her people. But
her enemies were numerous, powerful, and active, in
conspiring against her authority. They had their
emissaries at the French and Spanish courts, and at
the camp of Alva in the Netherlands, urging the inva-
sion of England and the overthrow of the English
queen.
One of the circumstances which gave the most
grievous offence to the French and Spanish monarchs,
was the free asylum which Elizabeth offered in Eng-
land to the Protestants flying from persecution abroad.
Though these rulers would not permit their subjects to
worship according to conscience in their own country,
neither would they tolerate their leaving it to worship
in freedom elsewhere. Conformity, not depopulation,
was their object : conformity by force, if not by suasion.
All attempts made by the persecuted to leave France
or Flanders were accordingly interdicted. They were
threatened with confiscation of their property and
goods if they fled, and with death if they remained.
The hearts of the kings were hardened: they "would
not let the people go !" But the ocean was a broad
CHAP. v. THE QUEEN DENOUNCED Xf THE POPE. 75
and free road that could not be closed ; and the perse-
cuted escaped by sea. Tidings reached the kings of
the escape of their subjects, whom they had failed
either to convert or to kill. They could only gnash
their teeth and utter threats against the queen and
the nation that had given their persecuted people
asylum.
The French king formally demanded that Elizabeth
should banish his fugitive subjects from her realm as
rebels and heretics ; but he was unable to enforce his
demands, and the fugitives remained. The Spanish
monarch called upon the Pope to interfere ; and he in
his turn tried to close the ports of England against
foreign heretics. In a communication addressed by
him to Elizabeth, the Pope proclaimed the fugitives to
be "drunkards and sectaries" — ebriosi et sectarii, —
and declared " that all such as were the worst of the
people resorted to England, and were by the Queen
received into safe protection" — ad quam velut ad
asylum omnium impestissimi perfugium invenerunt.
The Pope's denunciations of the refugees were
answered by Bishop Jewell, who vindicated their cha-
racter, and held them up as examples of industry and
orderly living. " Is it not lawful," he asked, " for the
Queen to receive strangers without the Pope's war-
rant ? " Quoting the above-cited Latin passages, he
proceeded: "Thus he speaketh of the poor exiles of
Flanders, France, and other countries, who either lost or
left behind them all that they had — goods, lands, and
houses — not for adultery, or theft, or treason, but for
the profession of the Gospel. It pleased God here to
cast them on land ; the Queen, of her gracious pity
hath granted them harbour. Is it so heinous a thing
to show mercy?" The bishop proceeded to retort
upon the Pope for harbouring 6000 usurers and 20,000
courtezans in his own city of Rome ; and he desired
to know whether, if the Pope was to be allowed to
entertain such " servants of the devil," the Queen of
England was to be denied the liberty of receiving " a
76 PROPOSED ASSASSINATION OF ELIZABETH. CHAP. v.
few servants of God " ? " They are," he continued,
" our brethren : they live not idly. If they have houses
of us, they pay rent for them. They hold not our
grounds but by making due recompense. They beg
not in our streets, nor crave anything at our hands,
but to breathe our air and to see our sun. They
labour truefully, they live sparingly. They are good
examples of virtue, travail, faith, and patience. The
towns in which they abide are happy ; for God doth
follow them with His blessings."1
When the French and Spanish monarchs found that
Elizabeth continued to give an asylum to their Protes-
tant subjects, they proceeded to compass her death.
Assassination was in those days regarded as the
readiest method of getting rid of an adversary ; and in
the case of an excommunicated person, it was regarded
almost in the light of a religious duty. When the
Regent Murray (of Scotland) was assassinated by Both-
wellhaugh, in 1570, Mary Queen of Scotland gave the
assassin a pension. Attempts were made about the
same time on the life of William of Orange, surnamed
"The Silent." One made at Mechlin, in 1572, proved
a failure ; but William was eventually assassinated at
Delft, in 1585, by Balthazar Gerard, an avowed agent
of Philip II. and the Jesuits ; and Philip afterwards
ennobled the family of the assassin.
In the meantime Maiy, Queen of Scotland, after her
return from France, had assumed the government of
her northern subjects. Mary never forgot the school
of the Guises, in which she had been trained. She
desired to enforce Popery upon Scotland as the Guises
had enforced it upon France. But under the spiritual
direction of Knox, the principles of the Reformation
had already taken strong hold of the minds of her
Scotch subjects. Her reign was a reign of bitterness
and defeat. Her marriage with Both well, the murderer
of her second husband, was the consummation of her
1 Bishop Jenell's \VorJa (Parker Society), pp. 1148-9.
CHAP. v. MART QUEEN OF SCOTS. 77
government of Scotland. After the rout of her troops
at Longside, she fled across the Border and took
refuge in England.
Mary gave herself up a prisoner into the hands of
the English government. She was confined in various
castles. When the French and Spanish ambassadors,
who were then at the English court, were privily en-
gaged in stirring up discontent against Elizabeth, and
organizing plots against her, they found a ready in-
strument in the Queen of Scots, then confined in Tut-
bury Castle. Mary was not held so strict a prisoner
as to be precluded from carrying on an active corres-
pondence with her partizans in England and Scotland,
with the Duke of Guise and others in France, and with
the Duke of Alva and Philip II. in Flanders and Spain.
Guilty though the Queen of Scots had been of the
death of her husband, the Roman Catholics of England
regarded her as their rightful head, and were ready to
rise in arms in her cause.
Mary was an inveterate intriguer. We find her en-
treating the Courts of France and Spain to send her
soldiers, artillerymen, and arms; and pressing the king
of Spain to set on foot the invasion of England, with
the object of dethroning Elizabeth and restoring the
Roman Catholic faith. Her importunities, as well as
the fascinations of her person, were not. without their
effect upon those under her immediate influence ; and
she succeeded in inducing the Duke of Norfolk, who
cherished the hope of becoming her fourth husband,
to undertake a scheme for her liberation. A con-
spiracy of the leading nobles was formed, at the head
of which were the Earls of Northumberland and West-
moreland ; and in the autumn of 1568 they raised the
standard of revolt in the northern counties, where the
power of the Roman Catholic party was the strongest.1
1 " After having written to Pope that a port should be seized on
Pius V., the Spanish ambassador, the eastern coast of England,
and the Duke of Alva, to request where it would be easy to
their assistance, and to advise disembark troops, .... they
78 QtJEEti ELIZABETH EXCOMMUNICATED. cflAP. y
But the rising was speedily suppressed ; some of its
leaders fled into Scotland, and others into foreign
countries ; the Duke of Norfolk was sent to the Tower ;
and the Queen's authority was for the time upheld.
The Pope next launched against Elizabeth the most
formidable missile of the Church — a bull of excommu-
nication— in. which he declared her to be cut off, as the
minister of iniquity, from the community of the faithful,
and forbade her subjects to recognise her as their
sovereign. This document was found nailed up on the
Bishop of London's door on the morning of the loth
of May, 1570. The French and Spanish Courts now
considered themselves at liberty to compass the life of
Elizabeth by assassination. The Cardinal de Lorraine,
head of the Church in France, and the confidential
adviser of the Queen-mother, hired a party of assassins
in the course of the same year, for the purpose of de-
stroying Elizabeth, because of the encouragement she
had given to Coligny and the French Huguenots.
Again, the Duke of Alva, in his correspondence with
Mary Queen of Scots and the leaders of the Roman
Catholic party in England, insisted throughout that
the first condition of sending a Spanish army to their
assistance, was the death of Elizabeth.
Such was the state of affairs when the Bishop of
Ross, one of Mary's most zealous partizans, set on foot
a conspiracy for the destruction of the Queen. The
principal agent employed in communicating with
foreign powers on the subject was one Ridolfi, a rich
Florentine banker in London, director of the company
left Brancepath on the 14th of gates and joined the rebels. Thus
November, at the head of 500 made masters of the town, the in-
horsemen, and marched towards surgents proceeded to the cathe-
Durham. The insurrection was dral, burned the Bible, destroyed
entirely Catholic. They had the Book of Common Prayer,
painted Jesus Christ on the cross, broke in pieces the Protestant
with His five bleeding wounds, communion-table, and restored
upon a banner borne by old the old form of worship." —
Norton, who was inspired by the MIGNET — History of Mary Queer,
most religious enthusiasm. The of Scot:,
people of Durham opened their t
CfiAP. V. PLOT TO. ASSASSINATE THE QUEEN. 79
of Italian merchants, and an ardent Papist. Minute
instructions were drawn up and intrusted to Ridolfi,
to be laid by him before Pope Pius V. and Philip II.
of Spain. On his way to Rome through the Low
Countries, he waited on the Duke of Alva, and pre-
sented to him a letter from Mary Queen of Scots,
beseeching him to furnish her with prompt assistance,
with the object of " laying all this island " under
perpetual obligations to his master the King of Spain
as well as to herself, as the faithful executor of his
commands.1
At Rome Ridolfi was welcomed by the Pope, who
eagerly adopted his plans, and furnished him with a
letter to Philip II., conjuring that monarch by his
fervent 'piety towards God to furnish all the means
he might judge most suitable for carrying them into
effect. Ridolfi next proceeded to Madrid to hold an
interview with the Spanish Court, and arrange for the
murder of the English Queen. He was received to a
Conference with the Council of State, at which were
present the Pope's nuncio, the Cardinal Archbishop
of Seville (Inquisitor-General) ; the Grand Prior of
Castille, the Duke of Feria, the Prince of Eboli, and
other high ministers of Spain.
Ridolfi proceeded to lay his plan for assassinating
Elizabeth before the Council.2 He said "the blow
would not be struck in London, because that city was
the stronghold of heresy ; but while she was travelling."
On the Council proceeding to discuss the expediency of
the proposed murder, the Pope's nuncio at once under-
took to answer all objections. The one sufficient pre-
text, he said, was the bull of excommunication. The
vicar of God had deprived Elizabeth of her throne, and
the soldiers of the Church were the instruments of his
decree to execute the sentence of Heaven against the
Prince Labanoff's Collection, fully written out by Zayas, Secre-
iii. 216-20. tary of State, and are preserved
* The minutes of this remark- in the archives of Simancas (In-
able meeting of Council were . glaterra, fol. 823).
80 PLOTS OF MARY STUART. CHAP. 17.
heretical tyrant. On this, one Chapin Vitelli, who
had come from Flanders to attend the Council, offered
himself as the assassin. He said, if the matter was
intrusted to him, he would take or kill the Queen. The
councillors of state present then severally stated their
views, which were placed on record, and are still to be
seen in the archives at Simancas.
Philip II. concurred in the plot, and professed
himself ready to undertake the conquest of England by
force if it failed ; but he suggested that the Pope should
supply the necessary money. Philip, however, was a
man of hesitating purpose ; and, foreseeing the dangers
of the enterprise, he delayed embarking in it, and
eventually resolved to leave the matter to the decision
of the Duke of Alva.
While these measures against the life of Elizabeth
were being devised abroad, Mary Queen of Scots was
diligently occupied at Chatsworth in encouraging a
like plot at home with the same object. Lord Burleigh,
however, succeeded in gaining a clue to the conspiracy,
on which the principal agents in England were appre-
hended, and the Queen was put upon her guard. The
Spanish ambassador, Don Gerau, being found in secret
correspondence with Mary, was warned to depart the
realm; his last characteristic act being to hire two
bravoes to assassinate Burleigh. He lingered on the
road to Dover, hoping to hear that the deed had been
done. But the assassins were detected in time, and
instead of taking Burleigh 's life, they only lost their
own.
The Protestant party were from time to time thrown
into agonies of alarm by the rumour of these plots
against the life of their Queen, and by the reported
apprehension of agents of foreign powers arriving in
England for the purpose of stirring up rebellion and
preparing the way for the landing of the Duke of
Alva and his army. The intelligence brought by the
poor hunted Flemings, who had by this time landed in
England in large numbers, and settled in London and
CHAP. v. INDIGNATION OF THE ENGLISH NATION. 81
the principal towns of the south, and the accounts
which they spread abroad of the terrors of Philip's
rule in the Low Countries, told plainly enough what
the English Protestants had to expect if the threatened
Spanish invasion succeeded.
The effect of these proceedings was to rouse a
general feeling of indignation against the foreign
plotters and persecutors, and to evoke an active and
energetic public opinion in support of the Queen and
her government. Though a large proportion of the
English people were in a great measure undecided
as to their faith, their feeling of nationality was
intense. The conduct of Elizabeth herself was doubt-
less influenced quite as much by political as religious
considerations ; and in the midst of the difficulties by
which she was surrounded, her policy often seemed
tortuous and inconsistent. The nation was, indeed,
in one of the greatest crises of its fate. The Queen,
her ministers, and the nation at large, every day more
clearly recognised in the great questions at stake, not
merely the cause of Protestantism against Popery, but
of English nationality against foreign ascendency, and
of resistance to the threatened yoke of Rome, France,
and Spain.
The massacre of Saint Bartholomew, which shortly
followed, exercised a powerful influence in determining
the sympathies of the English people. The news of
its occurrence called forth a general shout of execra-
tion. The Huguenot fugitives, who crowded for refuge
into the southern ports, brought with them accounts of
the barbarities practised on their fellow-countrymen,
which rilled the national mind with horror. The
people would have willingly rushed into a war, to
punish the perfidy and cruelty of the French Romau
Catholics, but Elizabeth forbade her subjects to tako
up arms except on their own account as private volun-
teers.
What the Queen's private feelings were, may be in-
ferred from the reception which she gave to La Motho
82 ST. BARTHOLOMEW AND MARY STUART. CHAP. V.
Fenelon, the French ambassador, on his first appear-
ance at Court after the massacre. For several days she
refused to see him, but at length she admitted him to
an audience. The lords and ladies in waiting received
him in profound silence. They were dressed in deep
mourning, and grief seemed to sit on every counte-
nance. They did not deign to salute, or even to look
at the ambassador, as he advanced towards the Queen,
who received him with a severe and mournful coun-
tenance ; and, stammering out his odious apology,
he hastened from her presence. Rarely, if ever, had
a French ambassador appeared at a foreign court,
ashamed of the country he represented ; but on this
occasion, La Mothe Fenelon declared, in the bitterness
of his heart, that he blushed to bear the name of
Frenchman.
The perfidious butchery of the Huguenots excited
the profoundest indignation throughout Scotland.
John Knox denounced it from the pulpit of St. Giles's.
" The sentence is gone forth," he said, " against this
murderer, the King of France; and the vengeance
of God will not be withdrawn from his house. His
name shall be held in execration by posterity ; and no
one who shall spring from his loins shall possess the
kingdom in peace, unless repentance come to prevent
the judgment of God."
The massacre of Saint Bartholomew most probably
sealed the fate of Mary Stuart. She herself rejoiced
in it as a bold stroke for the Faith, and, it might be,
as the signal for a like enterprise on her own behalf.
Accordingly, she went on plotting as before; and in
1581 she was found engaged in a conspiracy with the
Duke of Lennox for the re-establishment of Popery
in Scotland, under the auspices of the Jesuits. These
intrigues of the Queen of Scots at length became
intolerable. Her repeated and urgent solicitations
to the King of Spain to invade England with a view
to the re-establishment of the old religion — the con-
spiracies against the life of Elizabeth in which she was
CHAP. v. EXECUTION OF MARY STUART. 83
from time to time detected1 — excited the vehement
indignation of the English nation, and eventually led
to her trial and execution ; for it was felt that so long
as Mary Stuart lived, the life of the English Queen, as
well as the liberties of the English people, were in
constant jeopardy.
It is doubtless easy to condemn the policy of Eliza-
beth in this matter, now that we are living in the light
of the nineteenth century, and peacefully enjoying the
freedom won for us through the sufferings and agony of
our forefathers. But, in judging of the transactions of
those times, it is right that allowance should be made
for the different moral sense which then prevailed,
as well as for the circumstances amidst which the
nation carried on its life-and-death struggle for inde-
pendent existence. Right is still right, it is true ;
but the times have become completely changed, and
public opinion has changed with them.
In the meanwhile, religious persecutions continued
to rage abroad with as much fury as before ; and
1 One of such conspiracies he said, " with ten gentlemen and
against the life of Elizabeth was a hundred others of our corn-
that conducted by John Ballard, pany and suite, will undertake
a Roman Catholic priest, in 1686. the deliverance of your royal
The principal instrument in the person from the hands of your
affair was one Anthony Babing- enemies. As regards getting
ton, who had been for two years rid of the usurper, from subjec-
the intermediary correspondent tion to whom we are absolved
between Mary Stuart, the Arch- by the act of excommunication
bishop of Glasgow, and Paget issued against her, there are six
and Morgan, his co-conspirators. gentlemen of quality, all of them
Ballard, Babington, and the rest my intimate friends, who, for the
of the gang, were detected, love they bear to- the Catholic
watched, and eventually cap- cause and to your Majesty's
tnred and condemned, through service, will undertake the tragic
the vigilance of Elizabeth's ever- execution." In the same letter
watchful minister Walsingham. Babington requested Mary Stuart
Mary had been kept fully advised to appoint persons to act as her
of all their proceedings. Bab- lieutenants, and to raise the popu-
ington wrote to her in June 1587, lace in Wales, and in the counties
explaining the intention of the of Lancashire, Derby, and Staf-
oonspirators, and enumerating ford. This letter, with others to
all the means for getting rid of a like effect, duly came into the
Elizabeth. " Myself in person," possession of Walsinpham.
84 'THE SACRED ARMADA. CHAP. v.
fugitives from Flanders and France continued to take
refuge in England, where they received protection and
asylum. Few of the refugees brought any property
with them : the greater number were entirely destitute.
But many brought with them that kind of wealth
which money cannot buy — intelligence, skill, virtue,
and the spirit of independence, — those very qualities,
which made them hateful to their persecutors, render-
ing them all the more valuable to the countries of
their adoption.
A large part of Flanders, before so rich and so pros-
perous, had by this time become reduced almost to a
state of desert. The country was eaten bare by the
Spanish armies. Wild beasts infested the abandoned
dwellings of the peasantry, and wolves littered their
young in the deserted farmhouses. Bruges and Ghent
became the resort of thieves and paupers. The sack
of Antwerp in 1585 gave the last blow to the stagger-
ing industry of that great city ; and though many of
its best citizens had already fled from it into Holland
and England, one-third of the remaining merchants
and workers in silks, damasks, and other stuffs, shook
the dust of the Low Countries from their feet, and left
the country for ever.
Philip of Spain at length determined to take
summary vengeance upon England. He was master
of the most powerful army and navy in the world, and
he believed that he could effect by force what he had
been unable to compass by intrigue. The most stern
and bigoted of kings, the great colossus of the Papacy,
the duly-appointed Defender of the Faith, he resolved,
at the same time that he pursued and punished his
recreant subjects who had taken refuge in England, to
degrade and expel the sacrilegious occupant of the
English throne. Accordingly, in 1588, he prepared
and launched his Sacred Armada, one of the most
powerful armaments that ever put to sea. It con-
sisted of 130 ships, besides transports, carrying 2650
great guns and 33,000 soldiers and sailors, besides 180
A p. v. UNION OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE. 85
priests and monks under a Vicar-General of the Holy
Inquisition. It was also furnished with chains and
instruments of torture, and with smiths and mechanics
to set them to work, — destined for the punishment of
the audacious and pestilent heretics who had so long
defied the triumphant power of Spain.
This armament was to be joined in its progress by
another equally powerful fleet off the coast of Flanders,
consisting of an immense number of flat-bottomed
boats, carrying an army of 100,000 men, equipped
with the best weapons and materials of war, who
were to be conveyed to the mouth of the Thames
under the escort of the great Spanish fleet.
The expedition was ably planned. The Pope blessed
it, and promised to co-operate with his money ; pledg-
ing himself to advance a million of ducats so soon as
the expedition reached the British shores. At the
same time, the bull issued by Pope Pius V., excom-
municating Elizabeth and dispossessing her of her
throne, was confirmed by Sextus V., and re-issued
with additional anathemas. Setting forth under such
auspices, it is not surprising to find that Catholic
Europe entertained the conviction that the expedition
must necessarily prove successful, and that Elizabeth
and Protestantism in England were doomed to inevit-
able destruction.
No measure could, however, have been better cal-
culated than this to weld the English people of all
ranks and classes, Catholics as well as Protestants,
into one united nation. The threatened invasion of
England by a foreign power — above all by a power
so hated as Spain — roused the patriotic feeling of a1.!
classes. There was a general rising and arming, by
land and by sea. Along the south coast the whole
maritime population arrayed themselves in arms ;
and every available ship, sloop, and wherry, was
manned and sent forth to meet and fight the
Spaniards.
The result is matter of history. The Sacred and
86 PROSTRATION OF SPAIN. CHAP. v.
Invincible Armada was shattered by the ships of
Drake, Hawkins, and Howard, and finally scattered
by the tempests of the Almighty. The free asylum
of England was maintained. The hunted exiles were
thenceforward free to worship and to labour in peace ;
and the beneficent effects of the addition of so many
skilled, industrious, and free-minded men to our popu-
lation, are felt in England to this day.
Philip II. of Spain died in 1598, the same year in
which Henry IV. of France promulgated the Edict of
Nantes. At his accession to the Spanish throne in
1556, Philip was the most powerful monarch in
Europe, served by the ablest generals and admirals,
with an immense army and navy at his command.
At his death, Spain was distracted and defeated, with
a bankrupt exchequer ; Holland was free, and Flanders
in ruins. The intellect and energies of Spain were
prostrate ; but the priests were paramount. The only
institution that flourished throughout the dominions
of Philip, at his death, was the Inquisition.
Elizabeth of England, on the other hand, succeeded,
in 1558, to an impoverished kingdom, an empty ex-
chequer, and the government of a distracted people,
one-half of whom denied, and were even ready to
resist, her authority. England was then without any
weight in the affairs of Europe. She had no army,
and her navy was contemptible. After a reign of
forty-five years, the aspect of affairs had become com-
pletely changed. The nation was found firmly united,
content, free, and prosperous. An immense impulse
had been given to industry. The intellect of the
people had become awakened, and a literature sprang
up which is the wonder even of modern times. The
power of England abroad was everywhere recognised.
The sceptre of the seas was wrested from. Spain, and
England thenceforward commanded the high-road to
America and the Indies.
The Queen was supported by able ministers, though
not more able than those who surrounded the King
CHAP. V.
PROGRESS OF ENGLAND.
87
of Spain. But the spirit that moved them was wholly
different — the English monarch encouraging freedom,
the Spanish repressing -it. As the one was the
founder of modern England, so the other was of
modern Spain.
It is true, Elizabeth did not rise to the high idea
of complete religious liberty. But no one then did —
not even the most advanced thinker. Still, the foun-
dations of such liberty were laid, while industry was
fostered and protected. It was accomplishing a great
deal, to have accomplished this much. The rest was the
work of time and experience, and the action of free
and energetic men living in an atmosphere of freedom.
MEDAL STRUCK AT ROME
In Commemoration of tJic Massacre of St.
CHAPTER VI.
SETTLEMENTS AND INDUSTRIES OF THE PEOTISTANT
REFUGEES IN ENGLAND.
IN early times, the English were for the most part a
pastoral and agricultural, and not a manufacturing
people. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries,
most articles of clothing, excepting such as were pro-
duced by ordinary domestic industry, were imported
from Flanders, France, and Germany.1 The great
staple of England was Wool, which was sent abroad
in large quantities. " The ribs of all people through-
out the world," wrote Matthew Paris, " are kept warm
by the fleeces of English wool."
The wool and its growers were on one side of the
English Channel, and the skilled workmen who dyed
and wove it into cloth were on the other. When war
broke out, and communication between the two shores
1 Besides the cloth of Flanders, Cordova, and milanery from Mi-
England was also supplied with Ian. The Milaners of London
most of its finer fabrics from were a special class of general
abroad — the names of the articles dealers. They sold not only
to this day indicating the places French and Flemish cloths, but
where they were manufactured. Spanish gloves and girdles, Mi-
Thus, there was the mechlin lace Ian caps and cutlery, silk, lace,
of Mechlin, the duffle of Duffel, needles, pins for ladies' dresses
the diaper of Ypres (d'Ypres), (before which skewers were used),
the cambric of Cambray, the ar- swords, knives, daggers, brooches,
ras of Arras, the tulle of Tulle, glass, porcelain, and various arti-
the damask of Damascus, and cles of foreign manufacture. The
the dimity of Damietta. Besides name of " milliner " (from Mi-
these, we imported delph ware laner) is now applied only to
from Delft, Venetian glass from dealers in ladies' caps and bon-
Venice, cordovan leather from nets.
CHAP. vi. IMMIGRATION OF FLEMISH ARTIZANS. 89
was interrupted, great distress was occasioned in
Flanders by the stoppage of the supply of English
wool. On one occasion, when the export of wool
from England was prohibited, the effect was to reduce
the manufacturing population throughout the Low-
Countries to destitution and despair. " Then might be
seen throughout Flanders," says the local historian,
"weavers, fullers, and others living by the woollen
manufacture, either begging, or, driven by debt, tilling
the soil." 1
At the same time, the English wool-growers lost the
usual market for their produce. It naturally occurred
to the English kings that it would be of great advan-
tage to this country to have the wool made into cloth
by the hands of their own people, instead of sending
it abroad for the purpose. They accordingly held out
invitations to the distressed Flemish artizans to come
over and settle in England, where they would find
abundant employment at remunerative wages ; and as
early as the reign of Edward III. a large number of
Flemings came over and settled in London, Kent,
Norfolk, Devon, Somerset, Yorkshire, Lancashire, and
Westmoreland.
The same policy was pursued by successive Eng-
lish kings, down to the reign of Henry VIII., who
encouraged skilled artizans of all kinds to settle in
England — as armourers, cutlers, miners, brewers, and
shipbuilders ; the principal craftsmen employed by the
court being Flemings and Germans.
The immigration of foreign Protestants began in
the reign of his successor Edward VI.
The disturbed state of the Continent at that time
had the effect of seriously interfering with the pur-
suits of industry; and in many of the German and
Low Country towns, the working-classes were begin-
ning to suffer from want of employment.
The unemployed sought to remove to some foreign
1 MEYER — Annalcs Flandria, p. 137*
90 IMMIGRATION OF FOREIGN PROTESTANTS. CHAP, vi
country less disturbed by party strife, in which they
might find remunerative employment for their in-
dustry ; while the men of The Religion longed for
some secure asylum in which they might worship
God according to conscience. John Bradford, the
Englishman, writing to his friend Erkenwalde Raw-
lins, the Fleming, in 1554, advised him thus : — " Go to,
therefore, dispose your goods, prepare yourselves to
trial, that either you may stand to it like God's cham-
pions, or else, if you feel such infirmity in yourselves
that you are not able, give place to violence, and go
where you may with free and safe conscience serve
the Lord."
There were indeed many who felt themselves want-
ing in the requisite strength to bear persecution, and
who, accordingly, prepared to depart. Besides, the
world was wide, and England was near at hand, ready
to give them asylum. At first, the emigration was
comparatively small ; for it was a sore trial to many
to break up old connections, to leave home, country,
and relatives behind, and begin the world anew in a
foreign land. Nevertheless, small bodies of emigrating
Protestants at length began to move, dropping down
the Rhine in boats, and passing over from the Dutch
and Flemish ports into England. Others came from
Flanders itself; though at first the immigration from
that quarter, as well as from France, was of a very
limited character.
The foreigners were welcomed on their arrival in
England, being generally regarded as a valuable ad-
dition to the skilled working classes of the country.
Thus Latimer, when preaching before Edward VT.,
shrewdly observed of the foreigners persecuted for
conscience' sake : — " I wish that we could collect to-
gether such valuable persons in this kingdom, as it
would be the means of insuring its prosperity." Very
few years passed before Latimer's wish was fully
realised ; and there was scarcely a town of any im-
portance in England in which foreign artizans were
CHAP. VI. PROTESTANT FLEMINGS IN LONDON. 91
not found settled and diligently pursuing their re-
spective callings.
The immigration of the Protestant Flemings in
Edward VI. 's reign was already so considerable, that
the King gave them the church in Austin Friars, Broad
Street, " to have their service in, and for avoiding all
sects of anabaptists and the like." The influx con-
tinued at such a rate as to interfere with the employ-
ment of the native population, who occasionally showed
a disposition to riot, and even to expel the foreigners
by violence. In a letter written by Francis Peyto to
the Earl of Warwick, then at Rome, the following
passage occurs: — "Five or six hundred men waited
upon the mayor and aldermen, complaining of the late
influx of strangers, and that, by reason of the great
dearth, they cannot live for these strangers, whom
they were determined to kill up through the realm if
they found no remedy. To pacify them, the mayor
and aldermen caused an esteame to be made of all
strangers in London, which showed an amount of
forty thousand, besides women and children, for the
most part heretics fled out of other countries." l Al-
though this estimate was probably a gross exaggera-
tion, there can be no doubt that by this time a large
number of the exiles had arrived and settled in London
and other English towns.
The influx of the persecuted Protestants, however,
did not fully set in until about ten years later, about
the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth. The fugitives,
in the extremities to which/ they were reduced, naturally
made for that part of the English coast which lay the
nearest to Flanders and France. In 1561, a consider-
able body of Flemings landed near Deal, and subse-
quently settled at the then decayed town of Sandwich.
The Queen was no sooner informed of their landing,
than she wrote to the mayor, jurats, and commonalty
of the burgh, enjoining them to give liberty to the
1 Calendar of State Papers, Foreign Series, 1547-53.
92 IMMIGR ATION OF FLEMINGS AND F£EXCH.ttl±?. vi.
foreigners to settle there and carry on their respective
trades. She recommended the measure as calculated
to greatly benefit the town by " plantynge in the same
men of knowledge in sundry handycrafts," in which
they " were very skilful"; and her Majesty more par-
ticularly enjoined that the trades the foreign artizans
were to carry on were " the makinge of say s, bays, and
other cloth, which hath not been used to be made in
this our realme of Englonde."
Other landings of Flemings took place about the
same time, at Harwich, at Yarmouth, at Dover, and
other towns on the south-east coast. Some settled at
the places where they had landed, and began to pursue
their several branches of industry ; whilst others pro-
ceeded to London, Norwich, Maidstone, Canterbury,
and other inland towns, where the local authorities
gave them protection and succour.
The year after the arrival of the Flemings at Sand-
wich, the inhabitants of the little seaport of Rye, on
the coast of Sussex, were thrown into a state of com-
motion by the sudden arrival of a number of destitute
French people from the opposite coast. Some came
in open boats, others in sailing-vessels. They were of
all classes and conditions, and amongst them were
many women and children. They had fled from
their own country in great haste, and were nearly
all alike destitute. Some crossed the Channel in
midwinter, braving the stormiest weather; and
when they reached the English shore they would
often fall upon their knees and thank God for their
deliverance.
In May 1562, we find John Young, mayor of Rye,
writing to Sir William Cecil, the Queen's chief secre-
tary, as follows : — " May it please your honour, there is
daily great resort of Frenchmen here, insomuch as
already there is esteemed to be 500 persons ; and we
be in great want of corn for their and our sustentation,
by reason the country adjoining is barren. . . . Also
may it please your honour, after night and this day is
CHAP, vi, LANDING OF FUGITIVES AT RTE. 93
come two shippis of Dieppe into this haven, full of
many people." l
It will be remembered that Rye is situated at the
south-western extremity of the great Romney Marsh ;
and as no corn is grown in that neighbourhood, the
wheat consumed in the place was all brought thither
by sea, or from a distance inland, over the then almost
impassable roads of Sussex. The townspeople of Rye
nevertheless bestirred themselves in aid of the poor
refugees. They took them into their houses, fed them,
and supplied their wants as well as they could ; but
the fugitives continued to arrive in such numbers that
the provisions of the place soon began to run short.
These landings continued during the summer of
1562 ; and even as late as November the mayor again
wrote to Cecil: "May it please your honour to be
advertised that the third day of the present month, at
twelve of the clocke, there arrived a bote from Dieppe,
with Frenchmen, women, and children, to the number
of a hundred and fiftye, there being a great number
also which were here before." And as late as the 10th
of December, the French people still flying for refuge,
though winter had already set in severely, the mayor
again wrote that another boat had arrived with " many
poor people, as well men and women as children, which
were of Rouen and Dieppe."
Six years passed, and again, in 1568, we find another
boat-load of fugitives from France landing at Rye:
" Monsieur Gamayes, with his wife and children and
ten strangers ; and Captain Sowes, with his wife and
two servants, who had all come out of France, as they
said, for the safeguard of their lives." Four years later,
in 1572, tfcere was a further influx of refugees at Rye,
— the mayor again writing to Lord Bnrleigh, informing
him that between the 27th of August and the 4th of
November no fewer than 641 had landed. The records
have been preserved of the names and callings of most
1 Dcincstlc State Papers— Elizabeth, 1562. No. 35.
94 INFLUX OF PROTESTANT REFUGEES. CHAP. vi.
of the immigrants ; from which it appears that they
were of all ranks and conditions, including gentlemen,
merchants, doctors of physic, ministers of religion,
students, schoolmasters, tradesmen, mechanics, artizans,
shipwrights, mariners, and labourers. Among the
fugitives were also several widows, who had fled with
their children across the sixty miles of sea which there
divide France from England, sometimes by night in open
boats, braving the fury of the winds and waves in
their eagerness to escape.1
The mayor of Rye made appeals to the Queen for
help, and especially for provisions, which from time
to time ran short; and the help was at once given.
Collections were made for the relief of the destitute
refugees in many of the churches in England, as well
as in Scotland;2 and, among others, we find the
refugee Flemings at Sandwich giving out of their
slender means " a benefaction to the poor Frenchmen
who have left their country for conscience' sake." 3
The landings continued for many years. The people
came flying from various parts of France and Flanders
— cloth-makers from Antwerp and Bruges, lace-makers
from Valenciennes, cambric-makers from Cambray,
glass-makers from Paris, stuff-weavers from Meaux,
merchants and tradesmen from Rouen, and shipwrights
and mariners from Dieppe and Havre. As the fugi-
tives continued to land, they were sent inland as
speedily as possible, to make room for new-comers, — the
household accommodation of the little towns along the
English coast being but limited. From Rye, many
proceeded to London to join their countrymen who
had settled there ; others went forward to Canterbury,
to Southampton, to Norwich, and the other towns
1 W. DTTRRANT COOPER — raised in Scotland for French
Sussex Archalogical Collections, Protestants in indigent circum-
Tol. xiii. p. 179: " The Protestant stances, in 1575 ; and Calderwood
Refugees in Sussex." has a similar notice in 1622.
2 James Melville, in his diary, Borough Records of Sand-
mentions that subscriptions were wich, 1572.
CHAP. vi. IMMIGRANTS AT DOVER AND SANDWICH. 95
where Walloon congregations had already been estab-
lished. A body of them settled at Winchelsea, an
ancient town, formerly of much importance on the
south coast, though now left high and dry inland.1
Many fugitives also landed at Dover, which was a
convenient point for both France and Flanders. Some
of the immigrants passed through to Canterbury and
London, while others settled permanently in the place.
Early in the seventeenth century, a census was taken
of the foreigners residing in Dover, when it was found
that there were seventy-eight persons " which of late
came out of France by reason of the troubles there."
The description of them is interesting, as showing
the classes to which the exiles principally belonged.
There were two " preachers of God's Word " ; three
physicians and surgeons; two advocates; two esquires;
three merchants ; two schoolmasters ; thirteen drapers,
grocers, brewers, butchers, and other trades ; twelve
mariners; eight weavers and wool-combers; twenty-
five widows, " makers of bone-lace and spinners " ;
two maidens ; one woman, designated as the wife of a
shepherd; one button-maker; one gardener; and one
undescribed male.2 There were at the same time
settled in Dover thirteen Walloon exiles, of whom five
were merchants, three mariners, and the others of
different trades.
In the meantime, the body of Flemings who had
first settled at Sandwich began to show signs of con-
siderable prosperity. The local authorities had readily
responded to the wishes of Queen Elizabeth, and did
what she required. They appointed two markets to
be held weekly for the sale of their cloths, in the making
1 Winchelsea, now a village al- with their broadsides to the
most in ruins, was once a flourish- shore. The place is now some
ing seaport. The remains of the miles from the sea, and sheep
vaults and warehouses where the and cattle graze over a wide
merchants' goods were stored are extent of marsh-land, over which
still pointed out, and the wharves the tide formerly flowed,
may still be seen where ships 2 Dam. Col. — James I., 1622.
discharged their cargoes, lying
96 PROSPERITY OF SANDWICH. CHAP. vi.
of which we very shortly find them busily occupied.
"When Archbishop Parker visited Sandwich, in 1563,
he took notice of " the French and Dutch e, or both,"
who had settled in the town, and wrote to a friend at
court that the refugees were as godly on the Sabbath-
days as they were industrious on week-days ; obser-
ving that such " profitable and gentle strangers ought
to be welcome, and not to be grudged at." l
Before the arrival of the Flemings, Sandwich had
been a poor and decayed place. It was originally a
town of considerable importance, and one of the Cinque
Ports. But when the river Stour became choked with
silt, the navigation, on which it had before depended,
was so seriously impeded, that its trade soon fell into
decay, and the inhabitants were reduced to great
poverty. No sooner, however, had the first colony of
Flemings, above four hundred in number, settled there
under the Queen's protection, than the empty houses
were occupied, the town became instinct with new life,
and was more than restored to its foi'mer importance.
The artizans set up their looms, and began to work at
the manufacture of sayes, bayes, and other kinds of
cloth, which met with a ready sale; the London
merchants resorting to the bi-weekly markets, and
buying up the goods at remunerative prices.
The native population also shared in the general
prosperity — learning from the strangers the art of
cloth-making, and becoming competitors with them for
the trade. Indeed, before many years had passed, the
townspeople, forgetful of the benefits they owed to the
foreign artizans, became jealous, and sought to impose
upon them special local taxes. On this the Flemings
memorialised the Queen,2 who again stood their friend ;
1 Strype's Parker, p. 1 39. foreign settlers) is suche, that by
* The memorial, which is still means of their chardges they
preserved amongst the town re- should finally be secluded and
cords, concludes with the follow- syndered from the liability of
ing prayer : — " Which condition those manifolde and necessary
(viz. the local imposition on the contributions which yet in this
CHAP. VI. NEW INDUSTRIES 1NTHODVCED. 97
and, on her intercession, the corporation were at length
induced to relieve them of the unjust burden. At that
time they constituted about one-third of the entire
population of the town ; and when Elizabeth visited
Sandwich in 1573, it is recorded that "against the
school-house, upon the new turfed wall, and upon a
scaffold made upon the wall of the school-house yard,
were divers children, to the number of a hundred or
six score, all spinning of fine bag yarn, a thing well
liked both of Her Majesty and of the Nobility and
Ladies." l
The Protestant exiles at Sandwich did not, how-
ever, confine themselves to cloth-making,2 but engaged
in various other branches of industry. Some of them
were millers, who erected the first windmills near the
town, in which they plied their trade. Two potters
from Delft began the pottery manufacture. Others
were smiths, brewers, hat-makers, carpenters, or ship-
wrights. Thus trade and population increased; new
buildings arose on all sides, until Sandwich became
almost transformed into a Flemish town ; and to this
day, though fallen again into comparative decay, the
quaint, foreign-looking aspect of the place never fails to
strike the visitor with surprise.
Among other branches of industry introduced by the
Flemings at Sandwich, that of gardening is worthy
our exile are practised amongst favour and consolation to the
us, as well towards the mainten- poore afflicted straungers. " —
ance of the ministry of God's BOYS' History of Sandwich, p.
word as lykewise in the sustenta- 744.
tion of our poore, besydes the l Antiquarian Repertory, iv.
chardges first above rehearsed: 65.
pcrformyng therefore our fore- * The principal trades which
sayde humble petition, we shall they followed were connected
be the more moved to directe our with the manufacture of cloths
warmest prayers to our mercyfull of different kinds. Thus, of 351
God, that of his heavenly grace Flemish householders resident in
he will beatify your common Sandwich in 1582, 86 were bay-
weall more and more, grauntynge makers, 74 bay-weavers, 17 fullers,
to ytt his spiritual and temporal 24 linsey-wolsey weavers, and 24
blessyngs, which he gracefully wool-combers,
powreth uppon them that showe
98 FLEMISH GARDEtfERS. CHAP, vl
of notice. The people of Flanders had long been
famous for their horticulture ; and one of the first
things which the foreign settlers did, on arriving in
the place, was to turn to account the excellent qualities
of the soil in the neighbourhood. Though long before
practised by the monks, Gardening had become almost
a lost art in England. It is said that Katherine,
Queen of Henry VIII., unable to obtain a salad for
her dinner in England, had her table supplied from
the Low Countries.1 The first Flemish gardens proved
highly successful. The cabbage, carrots, and celery
produced by the foreigners met with so ready a sale,
and were so much in demand in London itself, that a
body of gardeners shortly after removed from Sandwich
and settled at Wandsworth, Battersea, and Bermondsey,
where many of the rich garden-grounds first planted
by the Flemings, still continue to be the most produc-
tive in the neighbourhood of the metropolis.
It is also supposed, though it cannot be exactly as-
certained, that the Protestant Walloons introduced the
cultivation of the hop in Kent, bringing slips of the
plant with them from Artois. The old distich —
" Hops, Eeformation, Bays, and Beer,
Came into England all in one year "—
marks the period (about 1524) when the first English
hops were planted. There is a plot of land at Bourne,
near Canterbury, where there is known to have been
1 Vegetables were formerly so by the purveyor for the Clifford
scarce that they were salted family (WHITAKER — History of
down. Even in the sixteenth Craven, 321). Hartlib, writing
century, a cabbage from Holland in 1 650, says that an old man
was deemed an acceptable pre- then living remembered " the
sent (Fox's Life of James II., first gardener who came into
205). Hull then carried on a Surrey to plant cabbages. and
thriving import-trade in cab- cauliflowers, and to sow turnips,
bages and onions. The rarity of carrots, and parsnips, and to sow
vegetables in the country may be early pease — all of which at that
inferred from the fact, that in time were great wonders, we
1595 a sum equal to twenty having few or none in England
shillings was paid at that port for but what came from Holland
eix cabbages and a few carrots or Flanders."
CMA1>. Vi. PROTESTANT EXILES IN LONDON. 09
a hop-plantation in the reign of Elizabeth.1 Another
kind of crop introduced by the Flemings at Sandwich
was canary-grass, which still continues to be grown on
the neighbouring farms, and is indeed almost peculiar
to the district.
As might naturally be expected, by far the largest
proportion of the Protestant exiles — Flemish and
French — settled in London : — London, the world's
asylum — the refuge of the persecuted of all lands,
whether for race, or politics, or religion — a city of
Celts, Danes, and Saxons — of Jews, Germans, French,
and Flemings, as well as of English — an aggregate of
men of all European countries, and probably one of
the most composite populations to be found in the
Avorld. Large numbers of French, Germans, and
Flemings, of the industrious classes, had already
taken refuge in London from the political troubles
which had prevailed abroad. About the beginning of
the reign of Henry VIII. so many foreigners had
settled in the western parts of the metropolis, that
" Tottenham is turned French" passed into a proverb;
and now the religious persecutions which raged abroad,
compelled foreigners of various nations to take refuge
in London, in still greater numbers than they had done
at any former period.
Fortunately for London, as for England, the men
who fled thither for refuge were not idle, dissolute,
and ignorant; but peaceable, gentle, and laborious.
Though they were poor, they were not pauperised,
but thrifty and self-helping, and above all things
eager in their desire to earn an honest living. They
were among the most skilled and intelligent inhabit-
ants of the countries which had driven them forth.
Had they been weak men, they would have gone with
1 Reginald Scot, the author of "ostes at Peppering" as "a
The Pcrfite Platforme of a profytable patterne and a neccs-
Ihtppe Garden, speaks of " the sarie instruction for as maiiie as
trade of the Flemminge " (i.e. shall hare to doc therein."
his method of culture), and his
100 THE FLEMINGS IN SOUTH W ARK. CHAP. vi.
the stream as others did, and conformed ; but they
were men with convictions, earnest for the truth,
and ready to sacrifice their worldly goods and every-
thing else to follow it.
Of the Flemings and French who settled in London,
the greater number congregated in special districts, for
the convenience of carrying on their trades together.
Thus a large number of the Flemings settled in South-
warkandBermondsey,1 where they began many branches
of industry which continue to this day — Southwark
being still the principal manufacturing district of
London. There was a quarter in Bermondsey, known
as " The Borgeney," or " Petty Burgundy," because
of the foreigners who inhabited it. Joiners' Street,
which still exists in name, lay in the district, and was
so called because of its being almost wholly occupied
by Flemish joiners, who were skilled in all kinds of
carpentry. Another branch of trade begun by the
Flemings in Bermondsey, was the manufacture of felts
or hats. Tanneries and breweries were also started
by them, and carried on with great success. Henry
Leek, originally Hoek or Hook,2 from Wesel, was one
of the principal brewers of his time, to whose philan-
thropic bequest Southwark owes the foundation of the
excellent free school of St. Olave's — one of the best of
its class.
Another important settlement of the Flemings was
at Bow, where they established dye-works on a
large scale. Before their time, white cloth of English
manufacture was usually sent abroad to be dyed, after
1 The Flemish burying-ground, them amidst the population in
appropriated to the foreigners as which they have become merged.
a place of sepulture, was situated Thus, in the parish church of
near the south end of London Allhallows, Barking, we find the
Bridge. It is now covered by monument of a distinguished
the approaches to the London Fleming, one Roger Haestrecht,
Bridge Railway Station. who changed his name to James.
2 Many of the foreigners adop- He was the founder of the family
ted names of English sound, so of James, of Ightham Court, in
that it is now difficult to trace Kent.
CHAP. vi. FLEMISH MANUFACTURES. 101
which it was reimported and sold as Flemish cloth.
The best known among the early dyers, were Peter de
Croix and Dr. Kepler, the latter of whom established
the first dye-work in England ; and cloth of " Bow
dye " soon became famous.
Another body of the refugees settled at Wands-
worth, and began several branches of industry — such
as the manufacture of felts, and the making of brass
plates for culinary utensils — which, Aubrey says, they
" kept a mystery." One Fromantel introduced the
manufacture of pendulum or Dutch clocks, which
shortly came into use. At Mortlake, the French
exiles began the manufacture of arras, and at Fulham
of tapestry. The art of printing paperhangings was
introduced by some artizans from Rouen, where it had
been originally practised ; and many other skilled
workers in metal settled in different parts of the
metropolis — such as cutlers, jewellers, and makers of
mathematical instruments, in which the French and
Flemish workmen then greatly excelled.1
The employment given to the foreign artizans seems
to have excited considerable discontent amongst the
London tradesmen, who, from time to time, beseeched
the interference of the corporations and of Parliament.
Thus, in 1576, we find the London shoemakers peti-
tioning for a commission of inquiry as to the alien
shoemakers who were carrying on their trade in the
metropolis. Tn 1586, the London apprentices raised
a riot in the city against the foreigners ; and several
youths of the Plaisterers' Company were apprehended
and committed to Newgate by order of the Queen and
council. A few years later, in 1592, the London free-
men and shopkeepers complained to Parliament that
1 A French refugee, named after his time, in the reign of
Briot, was the first to introduce Charles II., another Frenchman,
the coining-press, which was a named Blondeau, was selected to
French invention, into England. superintend the stamping of our
He was appointed chief engraver English money.
to the Mint : and forty years
102 FOREIGN CITY MERCHANTS. CHAP, n
the strangers were spoiling their trades; and a bill
was brought in for the purpose of restraining them.
The bill was strongly supported by Sir Walter Raleigh,
who complained bitterly of the strangers ; but it was
opposed by Cecil and the Queen's ministers; and
though it passed the Commons, it failed through the
dissolution of Parliament — so that the refugees were
left to the enjoyment of their former protection and
hospitality.
Many of the foreigners established themselves as
merchants in the city, and soon became known as
leading men in commercial affairs. Several of them
had already been distinguished as merchants in their
own country ; and they brought with them a spirit
and enterprise which infused quite a new life into
London business. Among the leading foreign mer-
chants of Elizabeth's time we recognise the names
of Houblon, Palavicino, De Malines, Corsellis, Van
Peine, Tryan, Buskell, Corsirii, De Best, and Cotett.
That they prospered by the exercise of their respec-
tive callings, may be inferred from the fact that when,
in 1588, Queen Elizabeth proceeded to raise a loan in
the city by voluntary subscriptions, thirty-eight of the
foreign merchants subscribed £5000, in sums of £100
and upwards.
The accounts given of the numbers of the exiles
from Flanders and France who settled in London, are
very imperfect ; yet they enable us to form some idea
of the extensive character of the immigration. Thus,
a return of the population, made in 1571, the year
before the massacre of St. Bartholomew, shows that
in the city of London alone (exclusive of the large
number of strangers settled in South wark, at Bow, and
outside the liberties) there were, of foreigners belong-
ing to the English church, 889 ; to the Dutch, French,
and Italian churches, 1763 ; certified by their elders,
but not presented by the wards, 1828; not yet joined
to any particular church, 2663 ; " strangers that do
confesse themselves that their comyng hether was
CHAP. vi. AMOUNT OF FOREIGNERS IN LONDON. 103
onlie to seek worck for their lyvinge," 2561 ; or a
total of 9704 persons.1 From another return of
about the same date, in which the numbers are dif-
ferently given, we obtain some idea of the respective
nationalities of the refugees. Out of the 4594
strangers then returned as resident in the city of
London, 3643 are described as Dutch (i.e. Flemings) ;
657 French ; 233 Italians ; and 53 Spaniards and
Portuguese.2
That the foreign artizans continued to resort to Eng-
land in increasing numbers is apparent from a further
census taken in 1621, from which it appears that there
were then 10,000 strangers in the city of London alon'e
(besides still larger numbers in the suburbs), carry-
ing on 121 different trades. Of 1343 persons whose
occupations are specified, there were found to be 11
preachers, 16 schoolmasters, 349 weavers, 183 mer-
chants, 148 tailors, 64 sleeve-makers, 43 shoemakers,
39 dyers, 37 brewers, 35 jewellers, 25 diamond-cutters,
22 cutlers, 20 goldsmiths, 20 joiners, 15 clockmakers,
12 silk-throwsters, 10 glass-makers, besides hemp-
dressers, thread-makers, button- makers, coopers, en-
gravers, gunmakers, painters, smiths, watchmakers,
and other skilled craftsmen.3
Numerous other settlements of the refugees took
place throughout England, more particularly in the
southern counties. " The foreign manufacturers," says
Hasted, " chose their situations with great judgment,
distributing themselves with the Queen's licence
throughout England, so as not to interfere too much
1 State Papers, Dom. — Eliza- Spaniards, 10 Venetians, 2 Blacka-
beth, vol. 84, anno 1571. It moors, and two Greeks,
appears from the Bishop of Lon- 2 State Papers, Dom. — Eliza-
don's certificate of 1567 (four beth. vol. 82, anno 1571.
years before), that the number " List* of Foreign Protestants
of persons of foreign birth then and Aliens resident in England
settled in London was 4581, and 1618-88. Edited by William
612 French. There were at the Durrant Cooper, F.S.A. Camden
same time in London 36 Scots, Society's Papers, 1862.
J28 Italians. 23 Portuguese, 54
104 PROTESTANT EXILES AT NORWICH. CHAP. vi.
with each other." x One of the most important of such
settlements was that formed at Norwich, where the
Refugees founded and carried on many important
branches of trade.
Although Norwich had been originally indebted
mainly to foreign artizans for its commercial and
manufacturing importance, the natives of the city
were among the first to turn apon their benefactors.
The local guilds, in their usual narrow spirit, passed
stringent regulations directed against the foreign
artizans who had originally taught them their trade.
The jealousy of the native workmen was also roused,
and riots were stirred up against the Flemings, many
of whom left Norwich for Leeds and Wakefield in
Yorkshire, where they prosecuted the woollen manu-
facture free from the restrictions of the trades-unions,
whilst others left the country for Holland, to cany on
their trades in the free towns of that country.2
The consequence was that Norwich, left to its native
enterprise and industry, gradually fell into a state of
stagnation and decay. Its population rapidly dimin-
ished ; a large proportion of the houses stood empty ;
riots among the distressed workpeople were of frequent
occurrence; and it was even mooted in Parliament
whether the place should not be razed. Under such
circumstances, the corporation determined to call to
their aid the skill and industry of the exiled Protes-
tant artizans now flocking into the country; In the
year 1564, a deputation of the citizens, headed by the
mayor, waited on the Duke of Norfolk at his palace in
the city, and asked his assistance in obtaining a settle-
1 HASTED — History of Kent, an act having been passed en-
x. p. 160. joining that hats were only to
* In the reign of Henry VII. an be manufactured in some city,
attempt was made by a body of borongh, or market-town, the
Flemings to establish the manu- Flemings were thereby brought
facture of felt hats at Norwich. under the bondage of the guilds.
To evade the fiscal regulations The making of hats by them was
of the guilds, they settled outside suppressed ; and the Flemish hat-
the boundaries- of the city. But makers left the neighbourhood.
CHAP. vi. PROSPERITY OF NORWICH'. 105
menfc in the place of a body of Flemish workmen.
The Duke used his influence with this object, and
he shortly succeeded in inducing some 300 Dutch and
Walloon families to settle in Norwich at his charge,
and to carry on their trades under a licence granted
by the Queen.
The exiles were very shortly enabled, not only to
maintain themselves by their industry, but to restore
the city to more than its former prosperity. The
houses which had been standing empty were again
tenanted, the native population again became fully
employed, and the adjoining districts shared in the
general prosperity. In the course of a few years, 3000
foreign workmen were found settled in the city,
and many entirely new branches of trade were intro-
duced and successfully carried on by them. Besides
the manufacture of sayes, bayes, serges, arras, mou-
chade, and bombazines, they introduced the striping
and flowering of silks and damasks, which shortly
became one of the principal branches of trade in the
place.
The manufacture of beaver and felt hats, before im-
ported from abroad, was also successfully established
in Norwich. One Anthony Solen introduced the art
of printing, for which he was awarded the freedom of
the city. Two potters from Antwerp, Jasper Andries
and Jacob Janson, started a pottery, though in a very
humble way.1 Other Flemings introduced the art of
1 Stowe makes the following petition to Queen Elizabeth, that
reference to these men in his they were the first that brought
Survey of London : — " About the in and exercised the said science
year 1567 Jasper Andries and in this realm, and were at great
Jacob Janson, potters, came away charges before they could find
from Antwerp to avoid the per- the materials in this realm. They
secution there, and settled them- beseeched her, in recompense of
selves in Norwich, where they their great cost and charges, that
followed their trade, making gal- she would grant them house-
ley paving-tiles and apothecaries' room in or without the liberties
vessels, and others, very arti- of London by the water-side."
ficially. Anno 1 570 they removed The brothers Elers afterwards, in
to London. They set forth, in a 1688, began the manufacture of a
106 THE FOREIGNERS ATTACKED. CHAP. VI.
gardening in the neighbourhood, and culinary stuffs
became more plentiful in Norwich than in any other
town or city in England. The general result was —
abundant employment, remunerative trade, cheap food,
and great prosperity; Bishop Parkhurst declaring his
persuasion that "these blessings from God have hap-
pened by reason of the godly exiles who were so kindly
harboured there."
But not so very kindly after all. As before, the
sour native heart grew jealous ; and notwithstanding
the admitted prosperity of the place, the local popula-
tion began to mutter discontent against the- foreigners,
who had been mainly its cause. Like Jeshurun, the
natives waxed fat and kicked. It is true, the numbers
of Dutch, French, and Walloons in Norwich had be-
come very considerable, by reason of the continuance
of the persecutions abroad, which drove them across
the Channel in increasing numbers. But who so likely
to give them succour and shelter as their own country-
men, maintaining themselves by the exercise of their
skill and industry in the towns of England ?
The hostile movement against the foreign artizans
is even said to have been encouraged by some of the
gentlemen of the neighbourhood, who in 1570 set on
foot a conspiracy, with the object of expelling them by
force from the city and realm. But the conspiracy
was discovered in time. Its leader and instigator,
John Throgmorton, was seized and executed, with two
others; and the strangers were thenceforward permitted
to pursue their respective callings in peace.
Whatever may have been the shortcomings of
Elizabeth in other respects, she certainly proved her-
self the steadfast friend and protector of the Protestant
exiles. Her conduct with reference to the Norwich
conspiracy clearly shows the spirit which influenced
better sort of pottery in Staf- they removed from Staffordshire,
fordshire. They were natives of and settled in Lambeth or Che1-
Nuremberg in Germany. In 1710 sea.
CHAP. vi. QUEEN ELIZABETH'S PROTECTION. 107
her. In a letter written by her from the palace at
Greenwich, dated the 19th March 1570, she strongly
expostulated with the citizens of Norwich respecting
the jealousy entertained by them against the authors of
their prosperity. She reminded them of the advan-
tages they had derived from the settlement amongst
them of so many skilled artizans, who inhabited the
houses which had before stood desolate, and were
furnishing employment to large numbers of persons
who must otherwise have remained unemployed. She
therefore entreated and enjoined them to continue
their favours " to the poor men of the Dutch nation,
who, seeing the persecution lately begun in their
country for the trewe religion, hath fledd into this
realm for succour, and be now placed in the city of
Norwich, and hath hitherto been favourablye and
jintely ordered, which the Queen's Majestie, as a
mercifull and religious Prince, doth take in very good*
part, praeing you to continue your favour unto them
so long as they shall lyve emongste you quyetlye and
obedyently to God's trewe religion, and to Her Majesty's
lawes, for so one chrystian man (in charitie) is bound
to help another, especially them who do sutfre afflixion
for the gospelle's sake." l
1 The following is a copy of a alsoe a grete nomber of people
document in the State Paper nere xx*1 myles aboute the cittie.
Office (Dom. Eliz. 1561), giving to the grete relief of the [poorer]
an account of " the benefite re- sorte there,
ceyved by the strangers in Nor- " Item, By their means or cittie
wich for the space of tenne [is well inhabited, or] decayed
yeres." Several passages of the houses re-edified & repaired that
paper have been obliterated by [were in rewyn and more wolde
age: — be]. And now good rents [arej
" In primis, They brought a paide for the same,
grete comoditie thether — viz. the " Item, The niarchants by their
making of bayes, moucades, gro- com oditi[es have] and maye have
graynes, all sorts of tufts, etc. grete trade as well w*hin the
— w<* were not made there be- realme as wthoute the [realme],
fore, whereby they do not onely being in good estimacon in all
set on worke their owne people, places.
but [do also] set on worke or " Item. It cannot be, but where-
owne people wthin the cittie. as as a noiuber of people be but the
108 NEW BRANCHES OF MANUFACTURE. CHAP.TI.
A census was shortly after taken of the foreigners
settled in Norwich, when it was ascertained that they
amounted to about 4000, including women and chil-
dren ; and that they were effectually protected in the
exercise of their respective callings, and continued to
prosper, may be inferred from the circumstance that,
when the numbers were again taken, about ten years
later, it was found that the foreign community had
increased to 4679 persons.
It would occupy too much space to enter into a de-
tailed account of the settlement of the industrious
strangers throughout the country, and to describe the
various branches of manufacture which they intro-
duced, in addition to those already described. " The
persecution for religion in Brabant and Flanders," says
Hasted, " communicated to all the Protestant parts of
Europe the paper, woollen, and other valuable manufac-
tures of Flanders and France, almost peculiar at that
time to these countries, and till then in vain practised
elsewhere." l
Although the manufacture of cloth had already made
some progress in England, only the coarser sorts were
produced, the best being imported from abroad ; and
one receyve comodite of the other sustenance for the [pore], both
as well of the cittie as men of the for themselves as for all others of
countrie. cittie and countrie.
' ' Item, They be contributors to " Item, They live holy of them-
all paym**, as subsidies, taskes, selves w^ut [or chardge], and
watches, contribnsions,mynisters' do begge of no man, & do sus-
wagis, etc. tayne [all their owne] poore
" Item, Or owne people do people.
practice & make suche comodities " And to conclude, they for the
as the strangers do make, where- [moste p1* feare] God & diligently
by the yonthe is set onworke and & laboriously attende upon their
kept from idlenes. several occupations, they obay all
"Item, They digge & delve a maiestratis & all good lawes &
nomber of acres of grounde, & do ordynances, they live peaceblie
sowe flaxe & do make it out in amonge themselves & towards all
lynnen cloth, w** set many on men, & we thinke or cittie happy
worke. to enioye them."
" Item, They digge and delve a * HASTED — History of Kent,
grete quantitie of grounde for x. p. 160.
rootes, [wch] is a grete succour &
CHAP. vl. FLEMINGS SETTLE ALL OVER EXGLAXD. 109
it was not until the settlement among us of the Flemish
weavers that this branch of industry became one of
national importance. They spread themselves through
the towns and villages in the west of England, as well
as throughout the north, and wherever the woollen
weavers set up their looms they carried on a prosperous
trade.1 Among other places in the west they settled
at Worcester, Evesham, Droitwich, Kidderminster,
Stroud, and Glastonbury.2 In the east they settled
at Colchester, Hertford, Stamford, and other places.
Colchester became exceedingly prosperous in conse-
quence of the settlement of the Flemish artizans there.
In 1609 it contained as many as 1300 Walloons and
other persons of foreign parentage ; and every house
was occupied. In the north we find them establish-
ing themselves at Manchester, Bolton, and Halifax,
where they made " coatings " ; 3 and at Keudal, where
1 Fuller specifies the following
textile manufactures as having
been established by the immi-
grants : — In Norwich, cloths, fus-
tians, etc.; Sudbury, baizes ; Col-
chester, sayes and serges; Kent,
Kentish broad-cloths ; Devon-
shire,kerseys; Gloucestershire and
Worcestershire, cloths ; Wales,
Welsh friezes ; Westmoreland,
Kendal cloth ; Lancashire, coat-
ings or cottons ; Yorkshire, Hali-
fax cloths ; Somerset, Taunton
serges ; Hants, Berks, and Sussex,
cloth.
2 A settlement of Flemish
woollen-weavers took place at
Glastonbnry as early as 1549,
through the influence of the Duke
of Somerset, who advanced them
money to buy wool, at the same
tune providing them with houses
and small allotments of land from
the domain of the Abbey, which
the king had granted him. After
the fall of the Duke, the weavers
were protected by the Privy
Council, and many documents
relating to them are to be found
in the State Paper Office. — (Edwd.
VL, Dom. xiii. 71-77, and xiv.
2-14 and 55).
' The " coatings" or "cottons "
of Lancashire were in the first
instance but imitations in woollen
of the goods known on the Con-
tinent by that name ; the im-
portation of cotton wool from the
Levant having only begun, and
that in small quantities, about the
middle of the seventeenth cen-
tury. " There is one fact," says
the editor of the Shuttlenorth
Papcrt, " which seems to show
that the Flemings, after their
immigration, had much to do with
the fulling-mill at Manchester;
for its ordinary name was the
' walken-milne ' — nalcJie being
the Flemish name for a fulling-
mill. So persistent do we find
this name, that a plot of land
occupied by a mill on the banks
of the Irk still retains its oM
name of the Walker's Croft (i.e.
the fuller's fidi or ground), and
116 fUREAb Afri) LACE MAKERS. CHAP.VI.
they made cloth caps and woollen stockings. The
native population gradually learned to practise the
same branches of manufacture; new sources of em-
ployment were opened up to them ; and in the course
of a few years, England, instead of depending upon
foreigners for its supply of cloth, was not only able to
produce sufficient for its own use, but to export the
article in considerable quantities abroad.
Other Flemings introduced the art of thread and
lace making. A body of them who settled at Maid-
stone, in 1567, carried on the thread manufacture —
flax spun for the threadman, being still known there
as "Dutch work." Some lace-makers from Alen9on
and Valenciennes settled at Cranfield, in Bedfordshire,
in 1568 ; after which others settled at Buckingham,
Stoney-Stratford, and Newport-Pagnel, from whence
the manufacture gradually extended over the shires
of Oxford, Northampton, and Cambridge. About the
same time the manufacture of bone-lace, with thread
obtained from Antwerp, was introduced into Devon-
shire by the Flemish exiles, who settled in considerable
numbers at Honiton, Colyton, and other places, where
the trade continued to be carried on by their descend-
ants almost to our own time — the Flemish and French
names of Stocker, Murch, Spiller, Genest, Maynard,
Gerard, Raymunds, Rochett, Kettel, etc., being still
common in the lace-towns of the west.
Besides these various branches of textile manufac-
ture, the immigrants applied themselves to mining,
working in metals, salt-making, fish-curing, and other
arts, in which they were much better skilled than the
English then were. Thus, we find a body of them
in the earlier Manchester direc- shire, Lancashire, and the cloth-
tories, the fullers were styled ing districts of the west of
'walkers.' " — House and Home England, doubtless originated in
Accounts of the Shuttlercorth this callfrig, which was followed
Family (Chetham Society Papers, by so considerable a proportion
185G-8), pp. 637-8. The name of the population.
of Walker, so common in York-
CHAP. vt. SfEEL AND GLASS MAKERS. Ill
from tlie neighbourhood of Liege establishing them-
selves at Shotley Bridge, in the neighbourhood of
Newcastle-on-Tyne, where they introduced the making
of steel, and became celebrated for the swords and
edge-tools which they manufactured. The names of
the settlers, some of which have been preserved — Ole,
Mohl, Vooz, etc. — indicate their origin; and some of
their descendants are still to be found residing in the
village, under the names of Oley, Mole, and such
like.1
Another body of Flemings established a glasswork
at Newcastle-on-Tyne, where the manufacture still
continues to flourish. Two Flemings, Anthony Been
and John Care, erected premises for making window-
glass in London in 1567, and the manufacture was
continued by their two fellow-countrymen, Brut and
Appell. At that tin e, glass was so precious that when
the Duke of Northumberland left Alnwick Castle, the
steward was accustomed to take out the glazed win-
dows, and stow them away until his Grace's return ;
and even in the middle of the following century glass
had not been generally introduced, the royal palaces
1 Mr. Spencer read a paper on manufacture to the district were
the " Manufacture of Steel " at probably good Lutherans, who
the meeting of the British Asso- had suffered persecution for con-
ciation at Newcastle in 18G3, in science' sake : — " The blessing of
which he thus referred to these the Lord makes rich without care,
early iron- workers : — "In the wall so long as you are industrious in
of an old two-storey dwelling- your vocation, and do what is
house, the original materials of ordered you." There is, how-
which are hidden under a coat of ever, a much earlier reference to
rough-cast, there still exists a the immigrants in the parish
stone above the doorway with an register of Ebchester Church,
inscription in bad German, to which contains the entry of a
the following effect : — DES. HEE- baptism in 1628 of the daughter
BEX. BECEN. MACHET. EEICH. of one Mathias "Wrightson Ole
OHN. ALLF. SOBC. WAN. DVZV- or Oley — the name indicating a
GLEICH. IN. DEiNEil. STAND. probable marriage of the grand-
TBEVW. VND-LLEISIC. BIST. VXD. father of the child into a native
DVEST. WAS. DIE. BELOHLEN. family of the name of Wrightson,
1ST. 1691, of which the following and thereby marking the third
is a free translation, showing that generation in the neighbourhood,
the original importers of the stee'
112 SETTLERS AT SHEFFIELD AND YARMOUTH.
of Scotland being glazed only in their upper windows,
the lower ones being provided with wooden shutters.
Manufactories for the better kinds of glass were in
like manner established in London by Venetians, as-
sisted by Flemish and French refugee workmen. Otie
of them was carried on at Greenwich, and another at
Pinner's Hall in Austin Friars. The Flemings espe-
cially excelled in glass-painting, — one of them, Bernard
van Linge,who was established in London in 1614, being
the first to practise the art in England. It was this
artist who supplied the windows for Wadham College,
the fine window of Lincoln's Inn Chapel, and several
subjects for Lincoln College Chapel.
Flemish workers in iron and steel settled at Shef-
field under the protection of the Earl of Shrewsbury,
on condition that they should take English appren-
tices and instruct them in their trade. What the
skill of the Low Country iron- workers then was, may
be understood by any one who has seen the beautiful
specimens of ancient iron-work to be met with in
Belgium — as, for instance, the exquisite iron canopy
over the draw-well in front of the cathedral at Ant-
werp, or the still more elaborate iron gates enclosing
the little chapels behind the high altar of the cathe-
dral of St. Bavon, at Ghent. Only the Nurembergers,
in all Germany, could vie with the Flemings in such
kind of work. The effects of the instruction given by
the Flemish artizans to their Sheffield apprentices were
soon felt in the impulse which the improvement of
their manufactures gave to the trade of the town ; and
Sheffield acquired a reputation for its productions in
steel and iron which it retains to this day.
A body of refugees of the seafaring class established
themselves, with the Queen's licence, at Yarmouth
in 1568, and there carried on the business of fishing
with great success. Before then, the fish along the
English coasts were mostly caught by the Dutch, who
cured them in Holland, and brought them back for
sale in the English markets. But shortly after the
CHAP. vi. RECLAMATfON OF LANDS. 113
establishment of the fishery at Yarmouth by the
Flemings, the home demand was almost entirely sup-
plied by their industry. They also introduced the arts
of salt-making and herring-curing, originally a Flemish
invention ; and the trade gradually extended to other
places, and furnished employment to a large number
of persons.
By the enterprise chiefly of the Flemish merchants
settled in London, a scheme was set on foot for the
reclamation of the drowned lands in Hatfield Chase
and the great level of the Fens ; : when a large number
of labourers assembled under Cornelius Vermuyden to
execute the necessary works. They were, however, a
very different class of men from the modern "navvies";
for, wherever they went, they formed themselves into
congregations, erected churches, and appointed minis-
ters to conduct their worship. Upwards of two hun-
dred Flemish families settled on the land reclaimed by
them in the Isle of Axholrn ; the ships which brought
the immigrants up the Humber to their new homes
being facetiously hailed as " the navy of Tarshish."
The reclaimers afterwards prosecuted their labours,
under Vermuyden, in the great level of the Fens,
where they were instrumental in recovering a large
extent of drowned land, before then a mere watery
waste, but now among the richest and most fertile
soil in England.
A few of the exiles found an asylum in Scotland ;
though that country was then too poor to hold out
much encouragement to the banished artizans. Of
those who arrived in Edinburgh, due care was taken
for their maintenance and support. Collections were
made in the churches, and a place was provided for
their worship. It appears from the City records that,
in May 1586, the magistrates granted the use of the
University Hall for that purpose ; and that at the
1 Live* *f the Engineers, i. 15 65.
114 PROTESTANT EXILES IN SCOTLAND. CHAP. VI.
same time they agreed to pay a stipend to Pierre du
Moulin, the pastor of the refugees.
Several years later, an attempt was made to intro-
duce into Scotland the manufacture of cloth. In
1601, seven Flemings were engaged to settle in the
country, and set the work a-going, — six of them for
serges, and one for broadcloth. But disputes arose
amongst the boroughs as to the towns in which the
settlers were to be located, during which the strangers
were " entertained in meat and drink." l At length,
in 1609, a body of Flemings became settled in the
Canongate of Edinburgh, under one Joan Van Hedan,
where they were engaged in " making, dressing, and
litting of stuffis, giving great licht and knowledge of
their calling to the country people." 2
An attempt was also made to introduce the manu-
facture of paper into Scotland about the middle of the
seventeenth century, when French workmen were intro-
duced for the instruction of the natives. The first
mill was erected at Dairy, on the Water of Leith ; but
though the manufacturers succeeded in making grey
and blue paper, the speculation does not seem to have
answered, — as we find Alexander Daes, one of the prin-
cipal proprietors, shortly after occupied in showing an
elephant about the country ! — the first animal of the
kind that had been seen north of the Tweed.3
Besides the settlements of the foreigners in England,
others passed into Ireland, and settled in Dublin,
Waterford, Limerick, Belfast, and other towns. Sir
1 CHAMBERS — Domestic An- it was proposed to license a
nals of Scotland, i. p. 351. second printer, the widow of
2 Ibid. i. p. 421. Andrew Anderson, who held the
* I b id. ii. pp. 390-410. — The only licence, endeavoured to keep
art of paper-making was not the new printer (one David
successfully established in Scot- Lindsay) out of the trade, al-
land until the middle of the leging that she had been pre-
following century. Literature viously invested with the sole
must then have been at a low privilege, and that "one press
ebb north of the Tweed. In is sufficiently able to supply all
1683 there was only one print- Scotland"!
ing-press in Scotland ; and when
CHAP. vi. PROTESTANT EXILES IN IRELAND. 115
Henry Sidney, in the " Memoir of his Government
in Ireland," written in 1590, thus speaks of the little
colony of refugees settled at Swords, near Dublin : —
"I caused to plant and inhabit there about fourtie
families of the Reformed Churches of the Low Coun-
tries, flying thence for religion's sake, in one ruinous
town called Swords; and truly, sir, it would have
done any man good to have seen how diligently they
wrought, how they re-edified the quite spoiled ould
castell of the same town, and repay red almost all the
same, and how godlie and cleanly they, their wifes,
and children lived. They made diaper and tickes for
beddes, and other good stuffes for man's use ; and as
excellent leather of deer skynnes, goat and sheep fells,
as is made in Southwarke."
In short, wherever the refugees took up their abode,
they acted as so many missionaries of skilled work, —
exhibiting the best practical examples of diligence,
industry, and thrift, — and teaching the people amongst
whom they settled, in the most effective manner, the
begnnings of those various industrial arts by which
they have since acquired so much distinction and
wealth.
" I am persuaded," said the Rev. Elnathan Parr, in
his Expositions on the Epistle to the Romans, pub-
lished in 1632, "that England fares the better for
kindness showed, in dangerous times, to French and
Dutch strangers. Long may England be a sanctuary,
and refuge, and harbour for the persecuted saints I
For ' he that receiveth a righteous man in the name
of a righteous man, shall have a righteous man's
reward.' "
CHAPTER VII.
THE EARLY WALLOON AND FRENCH CHURCHES IN
ENGLAND.
THE chief object which the foreign Protestants had in
view in flying for refuge into England, was not, how-
ever, so much to follow industry as to be free to wor-
ship God according to conscience. For that they had
sacrificed all, — possessions, home, and country. Accord-
ingly, no sooner did they settle in any place, than they
formed themselves into congregations for the purpose
of worshipping together. While their numbers were
small, they were content to meet in each other's houses,
or in workshops or other roomy places ; but, as the
influx of refugees increased with the increase of persecu-
tion abroad, and as many pastors of eminence came
with them, the strangers besought the government
to grant them places for holding their worship in
public. This was willingly conceded; and as early
as the reign of Edward VI. churches were set apart
for their use in London, Norwich, Southampton, and
Canterbury.
The first Walloon and French churches in London
owed their origin to the young King Edward VI., and
to the protection of the Duke of Somerset and Arch-
bishop Cranmer. On the 24th of July 1550, the King
issued royal letters patent, appointing John A'Lasco,
a learned Polish gentleman,1 superintendent of the
1 In 1544, John A'Lasco gave which his uncle was archbishop,
up the office of provost of the to go and found, a Protestant
church of Gnezne, in Posen, of church at Embden, in East Fries-
CHAP. vir. CHURCHES FOR FOREIGNERS IN LONDON. 117
refugee Protestant churches in England ; and at the
same time he assigned to such of the strangers as had
settled in London the church in Austin Friars called
the Temple of Jesus, wherein to hold their assemblies
and celebrate their worship according to the custom
of their country. Of this church Walter Deloen and
Martin Flanders, Frangois de la Riviere, and Richard
Fran9ois, were appointed the first ministers ; the two
former, of the Dutch or Flemish part of the congrega-
tion, and the two latter, of the French. The King fur-
ther constituted the superintendent and the ministers
into a body politic, and placed them under the safe-
guard of the civil and ecclesiastical authorities of the
kingdom.
But the number of refugees settled in London shortly
became so great, that one church was found insufficient
for their accommodation, although the Dutch and French
met at alternate times during the day. In the course
of a few months, therefore, a second place of worship
was granted to the French-speaking section of the
refugees ; and the church of St. Anthony's Hospital, in
Threadneedle Street, was set apart for their use.1
land. An order of Charles V. fled for his life, and took refuge
obliged him to leave that town in Switzerland, where he died,
four years later ; when he came The foreign churches in Austin
over to England, in the year Friars and Threadneedle Street
1548, and placed himself in com- were reopened on the accession
munication with Cecil, who re- of Elizabeth,
commended him to the Duke of ' Both these churches were
Somerset and Archbishop Cran- subsequently destroyed by fire,
mer. During his residence in The church in Austin Friars was
England, A'Lasco was actively burnt down quite recently, and
engaged in propagating the new has since been restored. The
views. He established the first chuinh in Threadneedle Street
French printing-house in London was burnt down during the great
for the publication of religious fire of London, and was after-
books, of which he produced wards rebuilt ; but it has since
many ; and he also published been demolished to make way
others, written in French by for the approaches to the new
Edward VI. himself. During Eoyal Exchange, when it was
the reign of Mary, when Protes- removed to the new French
tantism in all its forms was church in St. Martin's-le-Grand.
temporarily suppressed, A'Lasco There were other foreign Pro-
1 18 FOREIGN CHUR CUES IN THE CO UNTR T. CHAP. vit.
Walloon and French congregations were also formed
in various country places. The first of the Walloon
churches out of London was that of Glastonbury, where
a body of Flemish Protestants settled as early as the
year 1550, under the protection of Archbishop Cranmer,
the Duke of Somerset, and Sir William Cecil. They
brought with them a well-known preacher, Yalaren
Pullen, and at once constituted themselves as a church.
The Duke of Somerset advanced them money to buy
wool, at the same time granting them small allotments
of land from the Abbey domain. After the fall of the
Duke, the weavers were taken under the protection of
the Privy Council, and many papers relating to them
are to be found in the State Paper Office ; but when
Mary succeeded to the throne, the little colony was
broken up, and, accompanied by their pastor Pullen,
they returned to the Continent, and eventually settled
at Frankfort-on-the-Maine.
Another of the early Walloon churches was that of
Winchelsea, formed in 1560; but it was of compara-
tively less importance than the others, inasmuch as,
— the town being poor and decaying, — most of the
refugees, shortly after landing there, proceeded inland
to London, Canterbury, or the other places where
settlements had already been formed. The Dutch
church at Dover long continued to thrive, being fed
by increasing immigrants from the opposite coast, until
at length it became known as the French Church.
At Sandwich the old church of St. Peter's was set
apart for the special use of the refugees ; but, at the
same time, they were enjoined not to dispute openly
concerning their religion.1 At Rye they were allowed
testant churches in London Edward VI., and continued to
besides those of the Walloons worship together during that of
and French, — such as the Spanish Elizabeth, after which they seem
Protestants, who, though few in to have become merged in the
number, had a church of their French congregations,
own as early as 1559; and the ' This church long continued
Italian Protestants, who formed to flourish. The Rev. Gerard de
n congregation in the reign of Gols, rector of St. Peter's, and
CHAP. Vil. FRENCH CHURCH AT SOUTHAMPTON. 119
the use of the parish church during one part of the day,
until a special place of worship could be provided for
their accommodation. The Walloon church at Yarmouth
was founded in 1568, and its members were mostly
fishermen. Queen Elizabeth granted them a license to
carry on their trade and to form a congregation ; and
they held their public worship in the building which
had originally been the mansion of Thomas de Dray ton,
representative of the town in the time of Edward III.
At Norwich, where the number of the settlers was
greater in proportion to the population than in most
other towns, the choir of Friars Preachers Church, on
the east side of St. Andrew's Hall, was assigned for the
use of the Dutch, and the Bishop's Chapel, afterwards
the church of St. Mary's Tombland, was appropriated
for the use of the French and Walloons.
Two of the most ancient and interesting of the
churches founded by the refugees, are those of South-
ampton and Canterbury, both of which survive to this
day. Southampton was resorted to at an early period
by fugitives from religious persecution in Flanders
and France. Many came from the Channel Islands,
where they had first fled for refuge, on account of the
proximity of these places to the French coast. This
appears from the register of the Southampton church, —
— a document of great interest, preserved amongst the
records of the Registrar-General at Somerset House.
It is stated in Falle"s History of Jersey, that forty-
two Protestant ministers of religion, besides a large
number of lay families, passed over from France into
Jersey in the reign of Elizabeth, — many of them before
the massacre of Saint Bartholomew. And although the
refugees for the most part regarded the Channel Islands
as merely temporary places of refuge, — or as a sort
minister of the Dutch congrega- townsmen that he was one of the
tion in Sandwich between -1713 persons selected by the corpora-
and 1737, was highly esteemed in tion to support the canopies at
his day as an author, and was the coronation of George II. and
so much respected by his fellow- Queen Caroline.
120 "GOD'S HOUSE" AT SOUTUAMPTOX. CHAP. \u
of stepping-stone to England, — a sufficient numbej
remained to determine the Protestant character ol
the community, and to completely transform th>
islands by their industry; since which time, Jersey and
Guernsey, from being among the most backward and
miserable places on the face of the earth, have come to
be recognised as among the most happy and prosper-
ous.
The first French church at Southampton, which was
so largely fed by arrivals from the Channel Islands,
was, like the two earliest foreign Protestant churches
in London, established in the reign of Edward VI. An
old chapel in Winkle Street, near the harbour, called
Domus Dei, or "God's House," forming part of an
ancient hospital founded by two merchants in the time
of Henry III., was set apart for the accommodation
of the refugees. The hospital and chapel had originally
been dedicated to St. Julian, the patron of travellers,
and was probably used in ancient times by pilgrims
passing through Southampton to and from the adjoin-
ing monastic establishments of Netley and Beaulieu,
and the famous shrines of Winchester, Wells, and
Salisbury.
There are no records of this early French church
beyond what can be gathered from their Register,1 —
which, however, is remarkably complete and well pre-
served, and presents many points of curious interest.
The first entries are dated 1567, when the register
began to be kept. From the first list of communicants
entered in that year, it appears that their number was
then only fifty-eight, of whom eight were distinguished
as "Anglois." The callings of the members were
various, medical men being comparatively numerous ;
whilst others are described as weavers, bakers, cutlers,
and brewers. The places from which the refugees had
1 " Register of the Church of St. Registrar-General at Somerset
Julian, or God's House, of South- House,
ampton," in the Archives of the
CHAP. vn. THE REGISTER AT SOUTHAMPTON. 121
come are also given — those most frequently occurring
being Valenciennes, Lisle, Dieppe, Gerne'se (Guernsey),
and .Terse.
It further appears from the entries, that satisfactory
evidence was required of the character and religious
standing of the new refugees, who from time to time
arrived from abroad, before they were admitted to the
privikges of membership; the words " avec attestation,"
" te'moinage par dent," or simply " te'moinage," being
attached to a large number of names. Many of the
fugitives, before they succeeded in making their escape,
appear to have been forced to attend Mass; and their
first care on landing seems to have been, to seek out
the nearest pastor, confess their sin, and take the
sacrament according to the rights of their Church. On
the 3rd of July 1574 (more than a year after the
massacre of St. Bartholomew) occurs this entry —
" Tiebaut de Befroi, his wife, his son, and his daughter,
after having made their public acknowledgment of
having been at the mass, were all received to the
sacrament."
One of the most interesting portions of the register
is the record of fasts and thanksgivings held at " God's
House"; in the course of which we see the poor refugees
anxiously watching the current of events abroad, de-
ploring the increasing ferocity of their persecutors,
praying God to bridle the strong and wicked men
who sought to destroy His Church, and to give the
help of His outstretched arm to its true followers and
defenders. The first of such fasts (Jeusnes) relates to
the persecutions in the Netherlands by the Duke of
Alva. It runs as follows : — " The year 1568, the 3rd
day of September, was celebrated a public fast ; the
occasion was that Monseignor the Prince of Orange
had descended from Germany into the Low Countries,
to try with God's help to deliver the poor churches
there from affliction ; and now to beseech the Lord
most fervently for the deliverance of His people, this
fast was celebrated."
122 THE FASTS MELD AT SOUTHAMPTON. ciiAi>. vil.
Another fast was held in 1570, on the occasion of
the defeat of the Prince of Concle at the battle of
Jarnac, when the little church of Southampton again
beseeched help for their brethren against the calamities
which threatened to overwhelm them. Two years
later, on the 25th of September 1572, we find them
again entreating help for the Prince of Orange, who
had entered the Low Countries from Germany with a
new army, to deliver the poor churches there from the
hands of the Duke of Alva, " that cruel tyrant ; and
also, principally, for that the churches of France have
suffered a marvellous and extremely horrible calamity
— a horrible massacre having been perpetrated at Paris
on the 24th day of August last, in which a great
number of nobles and of the faithful were killed in
one night, about twelve or thirteen thousand ; preach-
ing forbidden ; and all the property of the faithful
given up to pillage throughout the kingdom. Now
for the consolation of them and of the Low Countries,
and to pray the Lord for their deliverance, was cele-
brated this solemn fast."
Other fasts were held, to pray God to maintain her
Majesty the Queen in good friendship and accord with
the Prince of Orange,1 to uphold the Protestant
churches in France, to stay the ravages of the plague,
to comfort and succour the poor people of Antwerp,
driven out of that city on its destruction by the
Spaniards,2 and to help and strengthen the churches
of the refuge established in England. Several of these
fasts were appointed to be held by the conference
(colloque) of the churches, the meetings of which were
held annually in London, Canterbury, Norwich, South-
ampton, and other places ; so that at the same time
the same fast was being held in all the foreign churches
throughout the kingdom.
In one case the shock of an earthquake is recorded.
The entry runs as follows :— " The 28th of April, 1580,
1 Fast, 29th August, 1576. a Fast, 22nd November, 1576.
CHAP. Vir. DEFEAT OF THE SPANISH ARMADA. 123
a fast was celebrated to pray God to preserve us
against His anger, since on the 6th of this month we
have been appalled by a great trembling of the earth,
which has not only been felt throughout all this king-
dom, but also in Picardy and the Low Countries of
Flanders; as well as to preserve us against war and
plague, and to protect the poor churches of Flanders
and France against the assaults of their enemies,
who have joined their forces to the great army of
Spain for the purpose of working their destruction."
Another fast commemorates the appearance of a comet,
which was first seen on the 8th of October, and con-
tinued in sight until the 12th of December in the
year 1581.
A subsequent entry relates to the defeat of the great
Spanish Armada. On this occasion the little church
united in a public thanksgiving. The record is as
follows: — "The 29th of November, 1588, thanks were
publicly rendered to God for the wonderful dispersion
of the Spanish fleet, which had descended upon the
coast of England with the object of conquering the
kingdom and bringing it under the tyranny of the
Pope." And, on the 5th of December following,
another public fast was held, for the purpose of pra)7-
ing the Lord that He would be pleased to grant to
the churches of France and of Flanders a like happy
deliverance as had been vouchsafed to England. A
blessing was also sought upon the English navy,
which had put to flight the Armada of Spain.
In the midst of these events, Queen Elizabeth visited
Southampton with her court ; on which occasion the
refugees sought to obtain access to her Majesty, to
thank her for the favour and protection which they
had enjoyed at her hands. They were unable to obtain
an interview with the Queen, until she had set out on
her way homeward, when a deputation of the refugees
waited for her outside the town and craved a brief
interview. This she graciously accorded, when their
spokesman thanked her for the tranquillity and rest
124 VISITS OF THE PLAGUE. CHAP. VII.
which they had enjoyed during the twenty-four years
that they had lived in the town ; to which the Queen
replied very kindly, giving praise to God who had
given her the opportunity and the power of welcoming
ard encouraging the poor foreigners.
A considerable proportion of the fasts relate to the
plague, which was a frequent and unwelcome visitor —
on one occasion sweeping away almost the entire set-
tlement. In 1583, the communicants were reduced to
a very small number; but those who remained met
daily at " God's House " to pray for the abatement of
the pestilence. It returned again in 1604, and again
swept away a large proportion of the congregation,
which had considerably increased in the interval.
One hundred and sixty-one persons are set down as
having died of plague in that year, the number of
deaths amounting to four and five a-day.
The greater number of the inhabitants of South-
ampton abandoned their dwellings, and the clergy
seem to have accompanied them ; for on the 23rd
of July, 1665, an English child was brought to the
French church to be baptized, by authority of the
mayor, and the ceremony was performed by M.
Courand, the pastor. Shortly after, M. Courand died
at his post, after registering with his own hand the
deaths of the greater part of his flock. On the 21st
of September, 1665, the familiar handwriting of the
pastor ceases, and the entry is made by another hand,
" Monsieur Courand, notre pasteur — peste."
While death was thus busy, marrying and giving
in marriage went on. Some couples were so im-
patient to be united that they could not wait for the
return of the English clergy, who had left the town,
but hastened to be married by the French pastor at
" God's House," as we find from the register.
Another highly-interesting memorial of the asylum
given to the persecuted Protestants of Flanders and
France so many centuries ago, is presented by the
"Walloon or French church which exists to this day
CHAP. vir. FRENCH CIIURCn AT CANTERBURY. Ub
in Canterbury Cathedral. It was formed at a very
early period — some suppose as early as the reign of
Edward VI., like those of London and Southampton ;
though the first record preserved of its existence is early
in the reign of Elizabeth. Shortly after the landings
of the foreign Protestants at Sandwich and Rye, a
body of them proceeded to Canterbury, and sought
permission of the mayor and aldermen to settle in
the place. They came principally from Lisle, Nuelle,
Turcoing, Waterloo, Darmentieres, and other places
situated along the present French frontier.
The first arrivals of the fugitives consisted of
eighteen families, led by their pastor, Hector Hamon,
"minister verbi Dei." They are described as having
landed at Rye, and temporarily settled at Winchelsea,
from which place they had come across the country to
Canterbury. Persecution had made these poor exiles
very humble. All that they sought was freedom to
worship and to labour. They had no thought but to
pursue their several callings in peace and quiet — to
bring up their children virtuously — and to lead a dili-
gent, sober, and religious life, according to the dictates
of their conscience. Men such as these are the salt of
the earth at all times ; yet they had been forced by
a ruthless persecution from their homes, and driven
forth as wanderers on the face of the earth.
In their memorial to the mayor and aldermen, in
15 64, they set forth that they had, for the love of
religion (which they earnestly desired to hold fast with
a free conscience), relinquished their country and their
worldly goods; and they humbly prayed that they
might be permitted the free exercise of their religion
within the city, and allowed the privilege of a temple
to hold their worship in, together with a place of sepul-
ture for their dead. They further requested that lest,
under the guise of religion, profane and evil-minded
men should seek to share in the privileges which they
sought to obtain, none should be permitted to join
them without giving satisfactory evidences of their
126 EXILES IN CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL. CHAP. vn.
probity of character. And, in order that the young
persons belonging to their body might not remain
untaught, they also asked permission to maintain a
teacher, for the purpose of instructing them in the
French tongue. Finally, they declared their intention
of being industrious citizens, and of proceeding, under
the favour and protection of the magistrates, to make
Florence serges, bombazine, Orleans silk, bayes, rnou-
quade, and other stuffs.1
Canterbury was fortunate in being appealed to by
these fugitives for an asylum — bringing with them, as
they did, skill, industry, and character. The autho-
rities at once cheerfully granted all that they asked,
in the terms of their own memorial. The mayor and
aldermen gave them permission to carry on their trades
within the precincts of the city. At the same time,
the liberal-minded Matthew Parker, then Archbishop
of Canterbury, with the sanction of the Queen, granted
to the exiles the free use of the Under Croft of the
cathedral, where " the gentle and profitable strangers,"
as the Archbishop styled them, not only celebrated
their worship and taught their children, but set up
their looms and carried on their industry.
The Under Croft, or Crypt, extends under the choir
and high altar of Canterbury Cathedral, and is of con-
siderable extent. The body of Thomas a Becket was
buried first in the Under Croft, and lay there for fifty
years, until it was translated with great ceremony to
the sumptuous shrine prepared by Stephen Langton,
his successor, at the east end of the cathedral. Part of
the Under Croft, immediately under the cross aisle of
the choir, was dedicated and endowed as a chapel by
Edward the Black Prince ; and another part of the
area was enclosed by rich Gothic stone-work, and
dedicated to the Virgin.2
1 The memorial is given in the tains an interesting Huguenot
appendix to SOMNEE'S Antiqui- memorial of about the same date
tics of Canterbury. as the settlement of the Walloons
2 Canterbury Cathedral con- in the Under Croft. The visitor
CHAP. vn. THE LADY UNDERCROFT CHAPEL. 127
The Lady Undercroft Chapel was one of the most
gorgeous shrines of its time. It was so rich and of such
high esteem, that Somner says, " The sight of it was
debarred to the vulgar, and reserved only for persons
of great quality." Erasmus, who by special favour
(Archbishop Warham recommending him) was brought
to the sight of it, describes it thus : — " There," said he,
" the Virgin-mother hath a habitation, but somewhat
dark, inclosed with a double sept or rail of iron, for
fear of thieves. For indeed I never saw a thing more
laden with riches. Lights being brought, we saw a
more than royal spectacle. In beauty it far surpasseth
that of Walsingham. This chapel is not showed but
to noblemen and especial friends." l Over the statue
of the Virgin, which was in pure gold, there was a
royal purple canopy, starred with jewels and precious
stones; and a row of silver lamps was suspended from
the roof in front of the shrine.
All these decorations were, however, removed by
Henry VIIL, who took possession of the greater part
of the gold and silver jewels of the cathedral, and had
them converted into money. The Under Croft became
to the cathedral observes behind his death made to Burghley and
the high altar, near the tomb of Leicester, preserved in the State
the Black Prince, a coffin of brick Paper Office, there does not, how-
plastered over, in the form of ever, appear sufficient ground for
a sarcophagus. It contains the the popular belief. His body was
ashes of Cardinal Odo Coligny, not interred, but was placed in
brother of the celebrated Admiral the brick coffin behind the high
Coligny, who was one of the first altar, in order that it might be
victims to the massacre of St. the more readily removed for in-
Bartholomew. In 1568, the car- terment in the family vault n
dinal visited Queen Elizabeth, France, when the religious trou-
who received him with marked bles which then prevailed had
respect, and lodged him sump- come to an end. But the mas-
tuously at Sheen. Three years sacre of St. Bartholomew shortly
later he died at Canterbury after followed ; the Coligny family
a brief illness. Strype, and nearly were then almost destroyed ; and
all subsequent writers, allege that hence the body of Odo Coligny
he died of poison, administered has not been buried to this day.
by one of his attendants because ' SOMNER. — Antiquities jf
of his supposed conversion to Pro- Canterbury. 1703. p 97.
testantism. From a full report of
123 REFUGEES IN TUE UNDERCROFT. CHAP, vj)
deserted ; the chapels it contained were disused ; and
it remained merely a large, vaulted, ill-lighted area,
until permission was granted to the Walloons to use it
by turns as a weaving-shed, a school, and a church.
Over the capitals of the columns on the north side of
the crypt are several texts of Scripture taken from the
Psalms, the Proverbs, and the New Testament, — still
to be seen in old French, written up for the benefit of
the scholars, and doubtless taught to them by heart.
Desolate, gloomy, and sepulchral though the place
might seem — with the ashes of former archbishops
and dignitaries of the cathedral mouldering under
their feet, — the exiles were thankful for the refuge it
afforded them in their time of need, and they daily
made the vaults resound with their prayer and praise.
Morning and night they " sang the Lord's song in a
strange land, and wept when they remembered Zion."
The refugees worked, worshipped, and prospered.
They succeeded in maintaining themselves ; they sup-
ported their own poor; and they were able, out of
their small means, to extend a helping hand to the
fugitives who continued to arrive in England, still
fleeing from the persecutions in Flanders and France.
Every corner of the Under Croft was occupied ; and
so many fresh immigrants continued to join them,
that the place was soon found too small for their
accommodation.
Somner, writing in 1639, thus refers to the exiles: —
" Let me now lead you to the Under Croft — a place fit,
and haply (as one cause) fitted to keep in memory the
subterraneous temples of the primitives, in the times
of persecution. The west part whereof, being spacious
and lightsome, for many years hath been the strangers'
church : a congregation for the most part of distressed
exiles, grown so great, and yet daily multiplying, that
the place in short time is likely to prove a hive too
little to contain such a swarm."
The Huguenot exiles remained unmolested in the
exercise of their worship until the advent of Charles L
CHAP. vii. THE EXILES AGAIN PERSECUTED. 129
as King of England, and of Laud as Archbishop of
Canterbury. An attempt was then made to compel
the refugees, who were for the most part Calvinists, to
conform to the Anglican ritual. The foreign congre-
gations appealed to the King, pleading the hospitality
extended to them by the nation when they had fled
from Papal persecution abroad, and the privileges and
exemptions granted to them by Edward VI., which
had been confirmed by Elizabeth and James, and even
by Charles I. himself. The utmost concession that the
King would grant was, that those who were born aliens
might still enjoy the use of their own church service ;
but that all their children born in England should
regularly attend the parish churches. Even this small
concession was limited only to the congregation at
Canterbury, and measures were taken to enforce con-
formity in the other dioceses.
The refugees thus found themselves exposed to an
Anglican persecution, instead of a Papal one. Rather
than endure it, several thousands of them left the
country, abandoning their new homes, and again risk-
ing the loss of everything, in preference to giving up
their views as to religion. About a hundred and forty
families emigrated from Norwich into Holland, where
the Dutch received them hospitably, and gave them
house-accommodation free, with exemption from taxes
for seven years, during which they instructed the
natives in the woollen manufacture, of which they
had before been ignorant. But the greater number of
the exiles emigrated with their families to North
America, and swelled the numbers of the little colony
already formed in Massachusetts Bay, which eventually
laid the foundation of the New England States.
After the lapse of a few years, the reactionary
course upon which Charles I. and Archbishop Laud had
entered, was summarily checked. The foreign refugees
were again permitted to worship God according to
conscience, and the right of free asylum in England
was again recognised and established.
9
CHAPTER VIH
THE EDICT OF NANTES. — COLBERT AND LOUIS XIV.
THE immigrations of foreign Protestants into England
in a great measure ceased towards the end of the six-
teenth century. In Flanders, the Protestants had for
the most part been killed or expatriated, and their
persecutors were left to enjoy their triumph amidst
ruins. France also experienced a period of temporary
repose. The ferocious wars of the League had been
terminated by the accession of Henry of Navarre, the
Huguenot leader, to the French crown, — on which both
parties laid down their arms for a time. Nothing
seemed to be wanting to secure the permanent unity
and peace of the kingdom but the acceptance by the
King of the religion of the majority ; and to accomplish
this great object, Henry conformed, or pretended to
conform, — making his public abjuration of the Protes-
tant faith in the church of St. Denis, on the 25th of
July 1593.
In that age of assassination, Henry was probably
influenced by the consideration that, unless he made
his peace with the Romish Church, his life was in
daily peril. Besides, religion formed no part of his
genuine character. Although, as a king, he was mag-
nanimous, large-hearted, and brave ; in his private
life, he was profligate and sensual. He had been a
Huguenot for political, rather than religious reasons ;
and for political reasons he ceased to be a Huguenot,
and became a Roman Catholic. But it was a mistake
on his part to suppose that his life was safer after
C-II.VP. vin. THE EDICT OF NAtfTES. 131
his recantation than before. On the contrary, it was
placed in still greater peril ; and his speedy assassina-
tion was predicted on the very day of his pretended
conversion, A member of the Grand Council, himself
a zealous Roman Catholic, immediately on Henry's
abjuration, whispered to a friend, — " The King is lost !
He is killable from this hour; before he was not."1
One of Henry's justest and greatest acts was the
promulgation by him, in 1598, of the celebrated Edict
of Nantes. By that edict the Huguenots, after sixty
years of persecution, were allowed at last comparative
liberty of conscience and freedom of worship. What
the Roman Catholics thought of it, may be inferred
from the protest of Pope Clement VIII., who wrote
to Henry to say, that " a decree which gave liberty of
conscience to all was the most accursed that had ever
been made"
From the date of that edict, persons of the Re-
formed Faith were admitted to public employment ;
their children were allowed access to the schools and
universities ; they were provided with equal represen-
tation in some of the provincial parliaments, and per-
mitted to hold a certain number of places of surety in
the kingdom. And thus was a treaty of peace estab-
lished for a time between the people of the contending
faiths throughout France.
But though Henry IV. governed France ably and
justly for a period of sixteen years, his enemies, the
Jesuits, never forgave him, nor did his apostasy avert
their vengeance. After repeated attempts made upon
his life by their emissaries, he was eventually assas-
sinated by Francis Ravaillac, a lay brother of the
monastery of St. Bernard, on the 14th of May 1610.
Although the edicts of toleration were formally
proclaimed by Henry's successor, they were practically
disregarded and violated. Marie de Medicis, the
queen-regent, was, like all of her race, the bitter
1 Mcmoires de L'Estoile,
132 CARDINAL RICHELIEU. CHAP. vni.
enemy of Protestantism. She was governed by Italian
favourites, who inspired her policy. They distributed
amongst themselves the public treasures with so lavish
a hand, that the Parisians rose in insurrection against
them, murdered Concini, whom the queen had created
Marshal d'Ancre, and afterwards burned his wife as a
sorceress; the young king, Louis XIII., then only about
sixteen years old, joining in the atrocities.
Civil war shortly broke out between the court and
the country factions, which soon became embittered
by the old religious animosities. There was a great
massacre of the Huguenots in Beam, where their
worship was suppressed, and the Roman Catholic
priests were installed in their places. Other massacres
followed, and occasioned general alarm among the
Protestants. In those towns where they were the
strongest, they shut their gates against the King's
forces, and determined to resist force by force. In
1621 the young King set out with his army to reduce
the revolted towns, and first attacked St. Jean d'Angely,
which he captured after a siege of twenty-six days.
He next assailed Montauban, but, after a siege of two
months, he retired from the place defeated, with tears
in his eyes.
In 1622, the King called to his councils Armand
Duplessis de Richelieu, the Queen's favourite adviser,
whom the Pope had recently presented with a cardi-
nal's hat. His force of character was soon felt, and
in all affairs of government the influence of Richelieu
became supreme. One of the first objects to which he
applied himself, was the suppression of the anarchy
which prevailed throughout France, occasioned in a
great measure by the abuse of the feudal powers still
exercised by the ancient noblesse. Another object
which he considered essential to the unity and power
of France, was the annihilation of the Protestants as
a political party. Accordingly, shortly after his ac-
cession to office, he advised the attack of Rochelle, the
head-quarters of the Huguenots — then regarded as
CHAP. YIII. SECOND SIEGE OF ROCHELLE. 133
the citadel of Protestantism in France. His advice was
followed, and a powerful army was assembled and
marched on the doomed place — Richelieu combining in
himself the functions of bishop, prime-minister, and
commander-in-chief. The Huguenots of Rochelle de-
fended themselves with great bravery for more than a
year, during which they endured the greatest priva-
tions. But their resistance was in vain. On the 28th
of October, 1628, Richelieu rode into Rochelle by the
King's side, in velvet and cuirass, at the head of the
royal army ; after which he proceeded to perform high
mass in the church of St. Margaret, in celebration of
his victory.
The siege of Rochelle, while in progress, excited
much interest among the Protestants throughout
England ; and anxious appeals were made to Charles I.
to send help to the besieged. This he faithfully pro-
mised to do ; and he despatched a fleet and army to
their assistance, commanded by his favourite the Duke
of Buckingham. The fleet duly arrived off Rochelle ;
and the army landed on the Isle of Rhe', but were
driven back to their ships with great slaughter. Buck-
ingham attempted nothing further on behalf of the
Rochellese. He returned to England with a disgraced
flag and a murmuring fleet, amidst the general dis-
content of the people. A second expedition sailed for
the relief of the place, under the command of the Earl
of Lindsay ; but though the fleet arrived in sight of
Rochelle, it sailed back to England without making
any attempt on its behalf. The popular indignation
rose to a greater height even than before. It was
bruited abroad, and generally believed, that both
expeditions had been a mere blind on the part of
Charles I., and that, acting under the influence of his
queen, Henrietta Maria, sister of the French king, he
had never really intended that Rochelle should be
relieved. However this might be, the failure was
disgraceful ; and when, in later years, the unfortunate
Charles was brought to trial by his subjects, the abor-
134 PEACE WITH THE HUGUENOTS. CHAP. vm.
live Rochelle expeditions were bitterly remembered
against him.
Meanwhile Cardinal Richelieu was vigorously pro-
secuting the war against the Huguenots, wherever
they stood in arms against the King. His operations
were uniformly successful. The Huguenots were
everywhere overthrown, and in the course of a few
years they had ceased to exist as an armed power in
France. Acting in a wise and tolerant spirit, Richelieu
refrained from pushing his advantage to an extremity ;
and when all resistance was over, he advised the King
to issue an edict, granting them freedom of worship
and other privileges. The astute statesman was doubt-
less induced to adopt this course by considerations of
state policy, for he had by this time entered into a league
with the Swedish and German Protestant powers, for
the humiliation of the house of Austria ; and with that
object he sought to enlist the co-operation of the King's
Protestant as well as Roman Catholic subjects. The
result was, that, in 1629, " the Edict of Pardon " was
issued by Louis XIII., granting to the Protestants
various rights and privileges, together with liberty of
worship and equality before the law.
From this time forward, the Huguenots ceased to
exist as a political party, and were distinguished from
the rest of the people by their religion only. Being
no longer available for purposes of faction, many
of the nobles, who had been their leaders, fell away
from them and rejoined the Roman Catholic Church ;
though a large number of the smaller gentry, the mer-
chants, manufacturers, and skilled workmen, remained
Protestants. Their loyal conduct fully justified the
indulgences granted to them by Richelieu ; and these
were confirmed by his successor Mazarin. Repeated
attempts were made to involve them in the civil broils
of the time, but they sternly kept aloof, and if they
took up arms, it was on the side of the government.
When, in 1632, the Duke of Montmorency sought,
for factious purposes, to re-awaken religious passion
CHAP. vm. LOYALTY OF THE HUGUENOTS. 135
in Languedoc, of which he was governor, the Hugue-
nots refused to join him. The Protestant inhabitants
of Montauban even offered to march against him.
During the wars of the Fronde, they sided with the
King against the factions. Even the inhabitants of
Rochelle supported the regent against their own gover-
nor. Cardinal Mazarin, then prime-minister, frankly
acknowledged the loyalty of the Huguenots. " I have
no cause/' he said, " to complain of the little flock ; if
they browse on bad herbage, at least they do not stray
away." Louis XIV. himself, at the commencement of
his reign, formally thanked them for the consistent
manner in which they had withstood the invitations
of powerful chiefs to resist the royal authority ; while,
at the same time, he professed to confirm them in the
enjoyment of their rights and privileges.
The Protestants, however, continued to labour under
many disabilities. They were in a great measure ex-
cluded from civil office and from political employment.
They accordingly devoted themselves for the most
part to industrial pursuits. They were acknowledged
to be the best agriculturists, wine-growers, merchants,
and manufacturers in France. " At all events," said
Ambrose Pare", one of the most industrious men of his
time, " posterity will not be able to charge us with
idleness." No heavier crops were grown in France
than on the farms in Beam and the south-western
provinces. In Languedoc, the cantons inhabited by
the Protestants were the best cultivated and the most
productive. The slopes of the Aigoul and the Eperon
were covered with their flocks and herds. The valley
of Vaunage, in the diocese of Nismes, where they had
more than sixty temples, was celebrated for the rich-
ness of its vegetation, and was called by its inhabitants
"the Little Canaan." The vinedressers of Berri and
the Pays Messin, on the Moselle, restored these dis-
tricts to more than their former prosperity; and the
diligence,, skill, and labour with which they subdued
the stubborn soil and made it yield its increase of
136 INDUSTRY OF THE HUGUENOTS. CHAP. vin.
flowers and fruits and corn and wine, bore witness in
all quarters to the toil and energy of the men of The
Religion.
The Huguenots of the towns were similarly indus-
trious and enterprising. At Tours and Lyons they
prosecuted the silk manufacture with great success.
They made taffetas, velvets, brocades, ribbons, and
cloth of gold and silver, of finer qualities than were
produced in any other country in Europe. They also
carried on the manufacture of fine cloth in various
parts of France, and exported their articles in large
quantities to Germany, Spain, and England. They
established linen manufactories at Vire, Falaise, and
Argentine, in Normandy; manufactories of bleached
cloth at Morlaix, Landerman, and Brest, and of sail-
cloth at Rennes, Nantes, and Vitrd, in Brittany ; — the
greater part of their productions being exported to
Holland and England.
The Huguenots also carried on large manufactories
of paper in Auvergne and the Angoumois. In the
latter province they had no fewer than six hundred
paper-mills ; the article they produced being considered
the best in Europe. The mills at Ambert supplied
the paper on which the choicest books, emanating
from the presses of Paris, as well as of Amsterdam
and London, were printed. The celebrated leather of
Touraine, and the hats of Caudebec, were almost ex-
clusively produced by Protestant manufacturers ; who
also successfully carried on, at Sedan, the fabrication
of articles of iron and steel, which were exported
abroad in large quantities.
Perhaps one reason why the Huguenots were so suc-
cessful in conducting these great branches of industry,
consisted in the fact that their time was so much less
broken in upon by saints' days and festival-days, and
that their labour was thus much more continuous, and
consequently more effective, than in the case of the
Roman Catholic portion of the population. Besides
this, however, the Protestants were almost of necessity
CHAP. VIII. HONESTY OF THE HUGUENOTS. 137
men of stronger character ; for they had to swim
against the stream and hold to their convictions in
the face of obloquy, opposition, and often of active per-
secution. The sufferings they had endured for religion
in the past, and perhaps the presentiment of heavier
trials in the future, made them habitually grave and
solemn in their demeanour. Their morals were severe,
and their piety was considered rigid. Their enemies
called them sour and fanatical, but no one called in
question their honesty and their integrity.1
" If the Nismes merchants," wrote Baville, Intendant
of that province, one of the bitterest persecutors of the
Protestants, " are bad Catholics, at any rate they have
not ceased to be very good traders." The Huguenot's
word was as good as his bond, and to be " honest as
a Huguenot " passed into a proverb. This quality of
integrity — which is so essential to the merchant, who
deals with foreigners whom he never sees — so charac-
terised the business transactions of the Huguenots,
that the foreign trade of the country fell almost en-
tirely into their hands. The English and Dutch were
always found more ready to open a correspondence
with them than with the Roman Catholic merchants ;
although religious affinity may possibly have had some
influence in determining the preference. And thus at
Bordeaux, at Rouen, at Caen, at Metz, at Nismes, and
the other great centres of commerce, the foreign busi-
ness of France came to be almost entirely conducted
by Huguenot merchants.
The enlightened minister Colbert gave every en-
couragement to these valuable subjects. Entertaining
the conviction that the strength of states consisted in
the number, the intelligence, and the industry of their
1 It is worthy of note, that the like ; not a word is to be
while the Huguenots were stig- found in them as to their morality
matised in contemporary .Roman and integrity of character. The
Catholic writings as "heretics," silence of their enemies on this
" atheists," "blasphemers," "mon- head is perhaps the most eloquent
sters vomited forth of hell," and testimony in their favour.
138 COLBERT AND THE HUGUENOTS. CHAP. vm.
citizens, he laboured in all ways to give effect to this
idea.1 He encouraged the French to extend their
manufactures ; and at the same time he held out in-
ducements to skilled foreign artizans to settle in the
kingdom and establish new branches of industiy. His
invitation was accepted, and considerable numbers of
Dutch and Walloon Protestants came across the fron-
tier, and settled as cloth manufacturers in the northern
provinces.
Colbert was the friend, so far as he dared to be, of
the Huguenots, whose industry he encouraged as the
most effective means of enriching France, and enabling
the nation to recover from the injuries inflicted upon
it by the devastations and persecutions of the pre-
ceding century. With that object he granted privi-
leges, patents, monopolies, bounties, and honours, after
the old-fashioned method of protecting industry. Some
of these expedients were more harassing than prudent.
One merchant, when consulted by Colbert as to the
best means of encouraging commerce, answered curtly
— " Laissez faire et laissez passer : " " Let us alone,
1 Some of the measures adopted of large families was offered in
by Colbert to increase the popu- the form of an actual pension to
lation, and to supply the loss of the fathers, of 1000 livres for ten
life occasioned by war, were of a children, and 2000 livres for
remarkable character. Thus, in twelve. At first such pensions
1666, a decree was issued for the were only offered to the nobles,
purpose of encouraging early but two years later they were
marriages and the rearing of extended to plebeians of every
large families. The preamble of degree. This law continued in
this decree set forth that matri- force until 1683, when it was
mony being "the fertile source abolished by another royal de-
of the power and greatness of cree, in which it was stated
states," it was desirable that cer- that the privileges and pensions
tain privileges should be granted granted for the encouragement
for its encouragement. Accord- of matrimony and of large fami-
ingly, it was decreed that all lies had to be repealed •' on ac-
young married men were to be count of the frauds and abuses
wholly exempted from taxation which they had occasioned.'*
until their twenty-fifth year, as All that remained of Colbert's
well as all fathers of families scheme, was the famous Hopital
of ten children and upwards. A des Enfants-trouves, which con-
further Dremium on the rearing tinues to the present day.
CHAP. vni. GEXIUS OF COLBERT. 130
and let our goods pass," — a piece of advice which was
not at that time either understood or followed.
Colbert also applied himself to the improvement of
the internal communications of the country. With
his active assistance and co-operation, Riquet de Bon-
repos was enabled to construct the magnificent canal
of Languedoc, which connected the Bay of Biscay
with the Mediterranean. He restored the old roads
of the country, and constructed new ones. He esta-
blished free ports, sent consuls to the Levant, and
secured a large trade with the Mediterranean. He
bought Dunkirk and Mardyke from Charles II. of
England, to the disgust of the English people. He
founded dockyards at Brest, Toulon, and Rochefort.
He created the French navy ; and instead of posses-
sing only a few old ships lying rotting in the harbours,
in the course of thirty years France came to possess
190 vessels, of which 120 were ships of the line.
Colbert was withal an honest man. His predecessor
Mazarin had amassed enormous wealth, whilst Colbert
died possessed of a modest fortune, the fruits of long
labour and rigid economy. His administration of the
finances was admirable. When he assumed office, the
state was over-burdened by debt, and all but bankrupt.
The public books were in a state of inextricable con-
fusion. His first object was to get rid of the debt by
an arbitrary composition, which was tantamount to an
act of bankruptcy. He simplified the public accounts,
economised the collection of taxes, cut off unnecessary
expenditure, and reduced the direct taxation — placing
his chief dependence upon indirect taxes on articles of
consumption. After thirty years' labour, he succeeded
in raising the revenue from thirty-two millions of livres
to ninety-two millions net, — one-half only of the in-
crease being due to additional taxation, the other half
to better order and economy in the collection.
At the same time, Colbert was public-spirited and
generous. He encouraged literature and the arts, as
well as agriculture and commerce. He granted
140 " THE MOST CHRISTIAN KING." CHAP. vm.
£160,000 in pensions to men of letters and science,
amongst whom we meet with the names of the two
Corneilles, Moliere, Racine, Perrault, and Mezerai. Nor
did he confine his liberality to the distinguished men
of France, for he was equally liberal to foreigners who
had settled in the country. Thus Huyghens, the dis-
tinguished Dutch natural philosopher, and Vossius, the
geographer, were among his list of pensioners. He
granted £208,000 to the Gobelins and other manu-
factures in Paris, besides other donations to those
in the provinces. He munificently supported the
Paris Observatories, and contributed to found the
Academy of Inscriptions, the Academy of Sciences,
and the Academy of Painting and Sculpture. In
short, Colbert was one of the most enlightened,
sagacious, liberal, and honourable ministers who ever
served a monarch or a nation.
But behind the splendid ordonnances of Colbert,
there stood a superior power — the master of France
himself, Louis XIV. — "the Most Christian King."
Richelieu and Mazarin had, by crushing all other
powers in the state — nobles, parliament, and people
— prepared the way for the reign of this most absolute
and uncontrolled of French monarchs.1 He was proud,
ambitious, fond of power, and believed himself to be
the greatest of men. He would have everything to
centre in the king's majesty. At the death of Mazarin
in 1661, when his ministers asked to whom they were
thenceforward to address themselves, his reply was
— " A moi." The well-known saying — " L'e'tat, c'est
moi," belongs to him. His people took him at his
word. Rank, talent, and beauty bowed down before
1 The engrained absolutism writing when a child. Instead
and egotism of Louis XIV., M. of such maxims as " Evil com-
Feuillet contends, were at their munications corrupt good man-
acme from his earliest years. ners," or "Virtue is its own
In the public library at St. reward," the copy set for him
Petersburg, under a glass case, was this : " Les rois font tout ce
may be seen one of the copy- qu'ils veulent." — Edin. Review.
books in which he practised
CHAP. vlli. DESPOTIC POWER OF LOUIS XIV. 141
him : they even vied with each other who should bow
the lowest.
While Colbert was striving to restore the finances
of France by the peaceful development of its industry,
this magnificent king, with a mind far above mercan-
tile considerations, was bent on achieving glory by the
conquest of adjoining territories. Thus, while his
minister was, in 1668, engaged in organising a com-
mercial system, Louis wrote to Charles II. with the
air of an Alexander the Great : — " If the English are
satisfied to be the merchants of the world, and leave
me to conquer it, the matter can easily be arranged ;
of the commerce of the globe, three parts to England,
and one part to France."1 Nor was this a mere whim
of the King ; it was the fixed idea of his life.
Louis went to war with Spain. He overran Flan-
ders, won victories, and France paid for the glory
in augmented taxation. He next made war with
Holland. There were more battles, less glory, but the
same inevitable increase of taxes. War in Germany
followed, during which there were the great sieges of
Besanc.on, Salin, and Dole ; though this time there was
no glory. Again Colbert was appealed to for money ;
but France had already been taxed almost to the utmost.
The King told the minister, in 1673, that he must find
sixty millions of livres more ; " if he did not, another
would." Thus the war had become a question mainly
of money, and the money Colbert must find. Forced
loans were then had recourse to, the taxes were in-
creased, honours and places were sold, and the money
was eventually raised.
The extravagance of Louis knew no bounds. Ver-
sailles was pulled down, and rebuilt at enormous cost.
Immense sums were lavished in carrying out the de-
signs of Vauban. France became surrounded with a
belt of three hundred fortresses. Various other spend-
thrift schemes were set on foot, until Louis had accu-
1 MIGNET— Negoc. de la Success. ffEsp. iii. 63.
142 DEATH OF COLBERT. CHAP, vilt
mulated a debt equal to £100,000,000 sterling. Colbert
at last succumbed, crushed in body and mind. He
died in 1683, worn out with toil, mortified and heart-
broken at the failure of all his plans. The people,
enraged at the taxes which oppressed them, laid the
blame at the door of the minister ; and his corpse was
buried at night, attended by a military escort to pro-
tect it from the fury of the mob.
Colbert did not live to witness the more disgraceful
events which characterised the latter part of the reign
of Louis XIV. The wars which that monarch waged
with Spain, Germany, and Holland, for conquest and
glory, were carried on against men with arms in their
hands, capable of defending themselves. But the wars
which he waged against his own subjects — the dragon-
nades and persecutions which preceded and followed
the revocation of the edict of Nantes, of which the vic-
tims were defenceless men, women, and children — were
simply ferocious and barbarous, and cannot fail in the
long run to attach the reputation of Infamous to the
name of Louis XIV., in history miscalled " The Great."
CHAPTER IX.
THE HUGUENOT PERSECUTIONS UNDER LOUIS XIV.
ONE of the first acts of Louis XIV. on assuming the
supreme control of affairs at the death of Mazarin, was
significant of his future policy with regard to the
Huguenots. Among the representatives of the various
public bodies who came to tender him their congratu-
lations, there appeared a deputation of Protestant
ministers, headed by their president Vignole. The King
refused to receive them, and directed that they should
leave Paris forthwith. Louis was not slow to follow up
this intimation with measures of a more positive kind.
He had been carefully taught to hate Protestantism ;
and now that he possessed unrestrained power, he enter-
tained the notion of compelling the Huguenots to aban-
don their religious convictions, and adopt his own. His
minister Louvois wrote to the governors throughout
the provinces — "His Majesty will not suffer any per-
son in his kingdom but those who are of his religion ;"
and orders were shortly after issued that Protestantism
must cease to exist, and that the Huguenots must
everywhere conform to the Royal Will.
A series of edicts was accordingly published with
the object of carrying the King's purpose into effect.
The conferences of the Protestants were declared to be
suppressed. Though worship was still permitted in
their churches, the singing of psalms in private dwel-
lings was ordered to be forbidden. Spies were sent
amongst them to report the terms on which the
Huguenot pastors spoke of the Roman Catholic
144 HUGUENOTS DEti ARRED FROM OFFICE. CHAP. IX.
religion, and if any fault could be found with them
they were cited before the tribunals for blasphemy.
The priests were authorised to enter the chambers
of sick Protestants, and entreat them whether they
would be converted or die in heresy. Protestant chil-
dren were invited to declare themselves against the
religion of their parents. Boys of fourteen and girls
of twelve years old might, on embracing Roman
Catholicism, become enfranchised and entirely free
from parental control. In such cases, the parents were
further required to place and maintain their children
in any Roman Catholic school into which they might
desire to enter.
The Huguenots were again debarred from holding
public offices ; though a few, such as Marshal Turenne
and Admiral Duquesne, who were Protestants, broke
through this barrier by the splendour of their services
to the state. In some provinces, the exclusion was so
severe that a profession of the Roman Catholic faith
was required from simple artizans — shoemakers, car-
penters, and the like — before they were permitted to
labour at their callings.1
Colbert, while he lived, endeavoured to restrain the
King, and to abate the intolerable persecutions which
dogged the Huguenots at every step. He continued to
employ them in the departments of finance, finding no
honester nor abler servants. He also encouraged the
merchants and manufacturers to persevere in their
industrial operations, which he regarded as essential
to the prosperity and well-being of the kingdom. He
took the opportunity of cautioning the King lest the
1 A ludicrous instance of this August, 1665. The corporation
occurred at Paris, where the cor- nevertheless notoriously con-
poration of laundresses laid a tained many abandoned women,
remonstrance before the council but the orthodox laundresses
that their community, having were more distressed by heresy
been instituted by St. Louis, than by profligacy. — DE FELICE,
could not admit heretics, and History of the Protestants of
this reclamation was gravely con- France.
firmed by a decree of the 21st
CHAP. ix. THE QUEEN-MOTHERS BEQUEST. !45
measures he was enforcing might tend, if carried out,
to the impoverishment of France and the aggrandise-
ment of her rivals. " I am sorry to say it," said he to
Louis, "that too many of your Majesty's subjects are
already amongst your neighbours as footmen and valets
for their daily bread ; many of the artizans, too, are
fled from the severity of your collectors ; they are at
this time improving the manufactures of your ene-
mies." But all Colbert's expostulations were in vain.
The Jesuits were stronger than he was, and the King
was in their hands. Besides, Colbert's power was on
the decline ; he too had to succumb to the will of his
royal master, who would not relieve even the highest
genius from that absolute submission which he required
from his courtiers.
In 1666, the Queen-mother died, leaving to her son,
as her last bequest, that he should suppress and
exterminate Heresy within his dominions. The King
knew that he had often grieved his royal mother by
his notorious licentiousness, and he was now ready to
atone for the wickedness of his past life, by obeying
her wishes. The Bishop of Meaux exhorted him to
press on in the path his sainted mother had pointed
out to him. " O kings ! " said he, " exercise your power
boldly, for it is divine — ye are gods ! " Louis was not
slack to obey the injunction, which so completely fell
in with his own ideas of royal omnipotence.
The Huguenots had already taken alarm at the
renewal of the persecution, and such of them as could
readily dispose of their property and goods, were
beginning to leave the kingdom for the purpose of
establishing themselves in other countries. To prevent
this, the King issued an edict forbidding French sub-
jects to proceed abroad without express permission,
under the penalty of confiscation of their goods and
property. This was followed by a succession of severe
measures for the conversion or extirpation of such of
the Protestants — in number about a million and a
half— as had not by this time contrived to make their
10
146 INTOLERABLENESS OF THE PERSECUTION. CHAP. ix.
escape from the kingdom. The kidnapping of Protes-
tant children was actively set on foot by the agents
of Roman Catholic priests ; and the parents were
subjected to heavy penalties if they ventured to
complain. Orders were issued to pull down certain
Protestant places of worship, and as many as eighty
were destroyed in one diocese.
The Huguenots offered no resistance. All that they
did was to meet together, and pray that the King's
heart might yet be softened towards them. Blow
upon blow followed. Protestants were forbidden to
print books without the authority of magistrates of the
Romish Communion. Protestant teachers were inter-
dicted from teaching children anything but reading,
writing, and arithmetic. Such pastors as held meet-
ings amid the ruins of the churches which had been
pulled down, were condemned to do penance with a
rope round their neck, after which they were banished
from the kingdom. Protestants were only allowed to
bury their dead at daybreak or at nightfall. They were
prohibited from singing psalms on land or on water, in
workshops or in dwellings. If a priestly procession
passed one of their churches while psalms were being
sung, they must stop instantly, on pain of fine of the con-
gregation, and imprisonment of the officiating minister.
In short, from the pettiest annoyance to the most
exasperating cruelty, nothing was wanting on the part
of the Most Christian King and his abettors. Their
intention probably was to exasperate the Huguenots
into open resistance, with the object of finding a pre-
text for a second massacre of St. Bartholomew. But
the Huguenots would not be exasperated. They bore
their trials bravely and patiently, hoping and praying
that the King's heart would relent, and that they
might yet be permitted to worship God according to
conscience.
All their patience and resignation were in vain.
From day to day the persecution became more oppres-
sive and intolerable. In the intervals of his scandalous
CHAP. ix. MADAME DE MAINTENON. 7.47
amours, the King held conferences with his spiritual
directors, to whom he was from time to time driven
by bilious disease and the fear of death. He forsook
Madame de La Valliere for Madame de Montespan,
and Madame de Montespan for Madame de Maintenon,
ever and anon taking counsel with his Jesuit confessor
Pere La Chaise. Madame de Maintenon was the in-
strument of the latter, and between the two the " con-
version" of the King was believed to be imminent.
In his recurring attacks of illness, his conscience
became increasingly uneasy. Confessor and mistress
co-operated in turning his moroseness to account, and
it was observed that every royal attack of bile was
followed by some new edict of persecution against the
Huguenots.
Madame de Maintenon, the last favourite, was the
widow of Scarron, the deformed wit and scoffer. She
belonged to the celebrated Huguenot family of
D'Aubigny, her grandfather having been one of the
most devoted followers of Henry IV. Her father led
a profligate life, but she herself was brought up in the
family faith. A Roman Catholic relative, however,
acting on the authority conferred by the royal edict,
of abducting Protestant children, had the girl forcibly
conveyed to the convent of Ursulines at Niort, from
which she was transferred to the Ursulines at Paris,
where, after some resistance, she abjured her faith and
became a Roman Catholic. She left the convent to
enter the world through Scarron's door. When the
witty cripple married her, he said, "his bride had
brought with her an annual income of four louis, two
large and very mischievous eyes, a fine bust, an ex-
quisite pair of hands, and a large amount of wit."
Scarron's house was the resort of the gayest and
loosest, as well as the most accomplished persons of the
time. There his young wife acquired that knowledge
of the world, conversational accomplishment, and pro-
bably social ambition, which she afterwards turned so
artfully and unscrupulously to account. One of her
148 " CONVERSION" OF THE HUGUENOTS. CHAP. ir.
intimate friends was the notorious Ninon de I'Enclos ;
and it is not improbable that the appearance of that
woman, courted by the fashionable world after thirty
years of polished profligacy, exercised a powerful in-
fluence on the subsequent career of Madame Scarron.
At Scarron's death, his young widow succeeded
in obtaining the post of governess to the children of
Madame de Montespan, the King's then mistress, whom
she speedily superseded. She secured a footing in the
King's chamber, to the exclusion of the Queen, who
was dying by inches,1 and by her adroitness, tact, and
pretended devotion, she contrived to exercise an ex-
traordinary influence over Louis, — so much so, that at
length even the priests could only obtain access to him
through her. She undertook to assist them in effecting
his " conversion," and laboured at the work four hours
a day, reporting progress from time to time to Pere la
Chaise, his confessor. She early discovered the King's
rooted hatred towards the Huguenots, and conformed
herself to it accordingly, increasing her influence over
him by artfully fanning the flames of his fury against
her quondam co-religionists ; and fiercer and fiercer
edicts were issued against them in quick succession.
Before the extremest measures were resorted to,
however, an attempt was made to buy over the Protest-
ants wholesale. The King consecrated to this traffic
one-third of the revenue of the benefices which fell to
the Crown during the period of their vacancy ; and the
fund became very large through the benefices having
been purposely left vacant. A " converted" Huguenot
named Pelisson was employed to administer the fund.
He published long lists of " conversions " in the
Gazette ; but he concealed the fact that the takers of
1 Le roi tua la reine, comme foucauld la prit par les bras, lui
Colbert, sans s'en apercevoir. . dit : " Le roi a besoin de vous. "
. . . Elle mournt (30 juillet Et il la poussa chez le roi. A
1683). Madame de Maintenon 1'instant tons les deux partirent
la quittait expiree et sortaitde la pour Saint-Cloud. — MICHELET,
chambre, lorsque M. de la Roche- Louis XIV., 273-4.
CHAP. IX. "CONVERSION" ENFORCED. 149
his bribes belonged to the dregs of the people. At
length many were detected undergoing " conversion "
several times over; upon which a proclamation was
published, that persons found guilty of this offence
would have their goods and property forfeited, and be
sentenced to perpetual banishment.
The great body of the Huguenots remaining im-
movable and refusing to be converted, it was found
necessary to resort to more violent measures. They
were attacked through their affections. Children
of seven years old were empowered to leave their
parents and become converted ; and many were forcibly
abducted from their homes, and immured in convent-
prisons, for education in the Romish faith at the expense
of their parents. Another exquisite stroke of cruelty
followed. While such Huguenots as conformed were
declared to be exempt from supplying quarters for the
soldiery, the obstinate and unconverted were ordered
to have an extra number quartered on them.
Louvois, the King's minister, wrote to Marillac, In-
tendant of Poitou, in March 1681, that he was about
to send a regiment of horse into that province. " His
Majesty," he said, "has heard with much joy of the
great number of persons who continue to be converted
in your department. He wishes you to persist in
your endeavours, and desires that the greater number
of horsemen and officers should be billeted upon the
Protestants. If, according to a just distribution, ten
would be quartered upon the members of the Reformed
religion, you may order them to accommodate twenty."
This was the first attempt at the Dragonnades.
Two years later, in 1683, the military executions
began. Pity, terror, and anguish had by turns agitated
the minds of the Protestants, until at length they were
reduced to a state of despair. Their life was made
intolerable. Every career was closed against them.
Protestants of the working class were under the neces-
sity of abjuring or starving. The mob, observing that
the Protestants were no longer within the pale of the
150 BUGUENOTS OF DAVPHINT. CHAP. IX.
law, took the opportunity of wreaking all manner of
outrages on them. They broke into their churches, tore
up the benches, and, placing the Bibles and hymnbooks
in a pile, set the whole on fire ; the authorities usually
setting their sanction on the proceedings of the rioters
by banishing the burned-out ministers, and interdicting
the further celebration of worship in their destroyed
churches.
The Huguenots of Dauphiny were at last stung
into a show of resistance, and furnished the King with
the pretext which he wanted for ordering a general
slaughter of those of his subjects who would not be
"converted" to his religion. A large congregation of
Huguenots assembled one day amidst the ruins of a
wrecked church, to celebrate worship and pray for
the King. The Koman Catholics thereupon raised the
alarm that this meeting was held for the purpose of
organising a rebellion. The spark thus kindled in
Dauphiny burst into flame in the Viverais, and even
in Languedoc; and troops were brought from all
quarters to crush the apprehended outbreak. Mean-
while the Huguenots continued to hold their religious
meetings ; and numbers of them were found one day
assembled outside Bordeaux, where they had met to
pray. There the dragoons fell upon them, cutting
down hundreds, and dispersing the rest. "It was a
mere butchery," says Rulhieres, " without the show of
a combat." Several were apprehended and offered
pardon if they would abjure; but they refused, and
were hanged,
Noailles, then governor, seized the opportunity of
advancing himself in the royal favour by ordering a
general massacre. He obeyed to the letter the cruel
orders of Louvois, the King's minister, who prescribed
desolation. Cruelty raged for a time uncontrolled from
Grenoble to Bordeaux. There were massacres in the
Viverais and massacres in the Cevennes. An entire
army had converged on Nismes, and there was so
horrible a dragonnade that the city was " converted "
CHAP. IX. CONFISCATION OF PROPERTY. 151
in twenty-four hours. Noailles wrote to the King that
there had indeed been some slight disorder, but that
everything had been conducted with great judgment
and discipline; and he promised with his head that
before the next 25th of November (1683) there would
be no more Huguenots in Languedoc.
Similar cruelties occurred all over France. More
Protestant churches were pulled down, and the property
that belonged to them was confiscated for the benefit of
the Roman Catholic hospitals. Many of the Huguenot
landowners had already left the kingdom, and others
were preparing to follow them. But this did not suit
the views of the monarch and his advisers; and the
Ordinances were ordered to be put in force, which
interdicted emigration, with the addition of condem-
nation to the galleys for life, of heads of families found
attempting to escape, and a fine of three thousand
livres against any person found encouraging or assist-
ing them. By the same Ordinance, all contracts for
the sale of property made by the Reformed within one
year before the date of their emigration, were declared
nullified. The consequence was that many landed
estates were seized and sold, of which Madame de
Maintenon, the King's mistress, artfully improved the
opportunity. Writing to her brother, for whom she
had obtained from the King a gratuity of 800,000
francs, she said : " I beg of you carefully to use the
money you are about to receive. Estates in Poitou
may be got for nothing ; the desolation of the Hugue-
nots will drive them to sell more. You may easily
acquire extensive possessions in Poitou."
Thus were the poor Huguenots trodden under foot
— persecuted, maltreated, fined, flogged, hanged, or
sabred; nevertheless, many of those who survived
remained faithful. Towards the end of 1684, a pain-
ful incident occurred at Marennes in Saintonge, where
the Reformed religion extensively prevailed, notwith-
standing the ferocity of the persecution. The church
there comprised from 13,000 to 14,000 persons; but
152 MILITARY OUTRAGES IN BEARb. CHAP. IX.
on the pretence that some children of the new con-
verts to Romanism had been permitted to enter
the building (a crime in the eye of the law), the
congregation was ordered, late one Saturday evening,
to be suppressed. On the Sunday morning a large
number of worshippers appeared at the church-doors,
some of whom had come from a great distance — their
own churches being already closed or pulled down, —
and amongst them were twenty-three infants brought
for baptism. It was winter. The cold was intense.
No shelter was permitted within the closed church ; so
that the poor things were, for the most part, frozen to
death on their mother's bosoms. Loud sobbing and
wailing rose from the crowd. All wept — even the men.
They could only find consolation in prayer ; but they
resolved, in this their darkest hour, to be faithful to the
end, even unto death.
A large body of troops lay encamped in Beam in
the early part of 1685, to watch the movements of the
Spanish army; but a truce having been agreed upon, the
Marquis de Louvois resolved to employ the regiments
in converting the Huguenots of the surrounding dis-
tricts after the methods adopted by Noailles at Nismes.
Some hundreds of Bearnese Protestants having been
driven by force into a church where the Bishop of Lescar
officiated, the doors were closed, and the poor people
were forced to kneel down and receive the bishop's
absolution at the point of the sword. To escape their
tormentors, the Reformed fled into the woods, the
wildernesses, and the caverns of the Pyrenees. They
were pursued like wild beasts, brought back to their
dwellings by force, and compelled to board and lodge
their persecutors. The dragoons entered the houses
with drawn swords, shouting, " Kill, kill, or become
Catholics." The scenes of brutal outrage which occurred
during these dragonnades cannot be described. The
soldiers were among the roughest, loosest, cruellest of
men. They suspended their victims with ropes, blow-
ing tobacco-smoke into their nostrils and mouths, and
CHAP. ix. THE DKAGONNADES IN THE SOUTH. 153
practising upon them a hundred other nameless cruel-
ties; until the sufferers promised everything, to rid
themselves of their persecutors. No wonder that the
constancy of the Bearnese at length yielded to the
cruelty of their persecutors, and that they hastened
to the priests in crowds to abjure their religion.
The success of the dragonnades in enforcing conver-
sion in Beam, encouraged the King to employ the same
means elsewhere ; and in the course of four months,
Languedoc, Guienne, Saintonge, Poitou, Viverais, Dau-
phiny, Cevennes, Provence, and Gex were scoured by
these missionaries of the Church. Neither age nor
sex was spared. The men who refused to be con-
verted were thrown into dungeons, and the women
were immured in prison-convents. Louvois thus re-
ported the result of his operations, in September
1685 : — "Sixty thousand conversions have been made
in the district of Bordeaux, and twenty thousand in
that of Montauban. So rapid is the progress, that
before the end of the month ten thousand Protestants
will not be left in the district of Bordeaux, where
there were one hundred and fifty thousand on the
loth of last month." Noailles wrote to a similar
effect from Nismes : — " The most influential people,"
said he, "abjured in the church the day following
my arrival. There was a slackening afterwards, but
matters soon assumed a proper shape with the help of
some billetings on the dwellings of the most obstinate."
The King jocularly called the dragoons, who effected
these conversions, — " ses missionnaires bott& ! "
In the meantime, while these forced conversions of
the Huguenots were being made by the dragoons of
De Louvois and De Noailles, Madame de Maintenon
continued to labour at the conversion of the King
himself. She was materially assisted by her royal
paramour's bad digestion, and by the qualms of con-
science which from time to time beset him at the
dissoluteness of his past life. Every twinge of pain,
every fit of colic, every prick of conscience was sue-
154 LOUIS XIV. "CONVERTED!" CHAP. IX.
ceeded by new resolutions to extirpate heresy. Penance
must be done for his incontinence ; but not by himself.
It was the virtuous Huguenots that must suffer vica-
riously for him ; and, by punishing them, he flattered
himself that he was expiating his own sins. " It was
not only his amours which deserve censure," says
Sismondi, "although the scandal of their publicity,
the dignities to which he raised the children of his
adultery, and the constant humiliation to which he
subjected his wife, add greatly to his offence against
public morality. . . . He acknowledged in his judg-
ments, and in his rigour towards his people, no rule
but his own will. At the very moment that his
subjects were dying of famine, he retrenched nothing
from his prodigalities. Those who boasted of having
converted him, had never represented to him more
than two duties — that of renouncing his incontinence,
and that of extirpating heresy in his dominions."1
The farce of Louis' " conversion " went on. In
August, 1684, Madame de Maintenon wrote thus : —
" The King is prepared to do everything that shall be
judged useful for the welfare of religion ; this under-
taking will cover him with glory before God and
man ! " The dragonnades were then in full career
throughout the southern provinces, and a long wail
of anguish was rising from the persecuted all over
France. In 1685 the King's sufferings increased, and
his conversion became imminent. His miserable body
was already beginning to decay ; but he was willing
to make a sacrifice to God of what the devil had left
of it. Not only did he lose his teeth, but caries in the
jaw-bone developed itself; and when he drank, the
liquid passed through his nostrils.2 In this shocking
state, Madame de Maintenon became his nurse.
The Jesuits now obtained all that they wanted.
They made a compact with Madame, by which she
DE SISMONDI— Hijitoire de France, sxv. 481.
1 Journal MS. des Medeciius, 1685.
CHAP. IX. R E VO CA TION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES. 1 55
was to advise the King to revoke the Edict of Nantes,
while they were to consent to her marriage with him.
Pere la Chaise, the Royal confessor, advised a private
marriage. The ceremony was performed at Versailles
by the Archbishop of Paris, in the presence of the
confessor and two more witnesses. The precise date
of the transaction is not known; but it is surmised
that the Edict was revoked one day, and that the
marriage took place the next.1
The Act of Revocation was published on the 22nd
of October, 1685. It was the death-knell of the
Huguenots.
1 Madame dit (Mcmoires, ii.
108) que le manage eut lieu
deux ans apris la mort de la,
reine, done dans les derniers
mois de 1685. M. de Noailles
(ii. 121) etablit la meme date.
Pour le jour precis, on 1'ignore.
On doit conjecture! qu'il eut lieu
apres le jour de la Revocation,
declaree a la fin d'octobre, ce
jour ouleroitint parole, accorda
1'acte qu'elle avait consenti, et ou
elle fut ainsi engag6e sans retour.
— MICHELET— Louis XIV. ct la
Revocation, 300.
CHAPTER X
RENEWED FLIGHT OF THE HUGUENOTS.
GREAT was the rejoicing of the Jesuits on the Revoca-
tion of the Edict of Nantes. Rome sprang up with a
shout of joy to celebrate the event. Te Deums were
sung, processions went from shrine to shrine, and the
Pope sent a brief to Louis conveying to him the
congratulations and praises of the Romish Church.
Public thanksgivings were held at Paris, in which
the people eagerly took part, — thus making themselves
accomplices in the proscription by the King of their
fellow-subjects. The provost and sheriffs had a statue
of Louis erected at the Hotel de Ville, the bas-reliefs
displaying a frightful bat, whose wings enveloped the
books of Calvin and Huss, and bearing the inscrip-
tion, Luduvico Magno, victori perpetuo, ecclesice ao
regum, dignitatis assertori.1 Lesueur was employed
to paint the subject for the gallery at Versailles, and
medals were struck to commemorate the extinction
of Protestantism in France.
The Roman Catholic clergy were almost beside
themselves with joy. The eloquent Bossuet was
especially fervent in his praises of the monarch : —
" Touched by so many marvels," said he (loth January,
1686), " let us expand our hearts in praise of the piety
of the Great Louis. Let our acclamations ascend to
heaven, and let us say to this new Constantino, this
new Theodosius, what the six hundred and thirty
1 The statue was pulled down in 1792, and cast into cannon which
thundered at Yalmy
CHAP. X. WHAT THE REVOCATION INVOL VED. 167
fathers said in the Council of Chalce'don, 'You have
strengthened the faith, you have exterminated the here-
tics : King of Heaven, preserve the king of earth.'"
Massillon indulged in a like strain of exultation :
" The profane temples," said 'he, " are destroyed, the
pulpits of seduction are cast down, the prophets of
falsehood are torn from their flocks. At the first blow
dealt to it by Louis, heresy falls, disappears, and is
reduced either to hide itself in the obscurity whence
it issued, or to cross the seas, and to bear with it into
foreign lands its false gods, its bitterness, and its rage."
Let us now see what the Revocation of the Edict of
Nantes involved : — The demolition of all the remaining
Protestant temples throughout France, and the entire
proscription of the Protestant religion ; the prohibition
of even private worship, under penalty of confiscation
of body and property ; the banishment of all Protes-
tant pastors from France within fifteen days; the
closing of all Protestant schools; the prohibition of
parents to instruct their children in the Protestant
faith ; the injunction, under a penalty of five hundred
livres in each case, to have their children baptized
by the parish priest, and brought up in the Roman
Catholic religion ; the confiscation of the property and
goods of all Protestant refugees who failed to return
to France within four months ; the penalty of the
galleys for life to all men, and of imprisonment for
life to all women, detected in the act of attempting
to escape from France !
Such were a few of the dastardly and inhuman
provisions of the Edict of Revocation. It was a pro-
clamation of war by the armed against the unarmed —
a war against peaceable men, women and children — a
war against property, against family, against society,
against public morality, and, more than all, against
religion and the rights of conscience.
The military jacquerie at once began. The very day
on which the Edict of Revocation was registered, steps
were taken to destroy the great Protestant church at
158 THE MILITARY JACQVJSR1X. CHAP, x
Charenton, near Paris. It had been the work of the
celebrated architect Debrosses, and was capable of
containing 14,000 persons. In five days it was levelled
with the ground. The great temple of Quevilly, near
Rouen, of nearly equal size, in which the celebrated
minister Jacques Basnage preached, was in like manner
demolished. At Tours, at Nismes, at Montauban, and
all over France, the same scenes were enacted, — the mob
eagerly joining in the work of demolition with levers
and pickaxes. Eight hundred Protestant temples were
thrown down in a few weeks.
The provisions of the Edict of Revocation were
rigorously put in force. They were also followed by
other edicts still more severe. The Protestants were
commanded to employ only Roman Catholic servants
under penalty of a fine of 1000 livres, while Protestant
servants were forbidden to serve either Protestant
or Roman Catholic employers. If any men-servants
were detected violating this law, they were liable to be
sent to the galleys ; whereas women-servants were to
be flogged and branded with a fleur-de-lis — the em-
blazonment of the " Most Christian King." Protestant
pastors found lurking in France after the expiry of
fifteen days, were to be condemned to death; and
any of the King's subjects found giving harbour to
the pastors were to be condemned — the men to be
galley-slaves, the women to imprisonment for life !
The reward of 5500 livres was offered for the appre-
hension of any Protestant pastor.
The Huguenots were not even permitted to die in
peace. They were pursued to death's door, and into
the grave itself. They were forbidden to solicit the
offices of those of their own faith, and were required
to confess and receive unction from the priests, on
penalty of having their bodies, when dead, removed
from their dwelling by the common hangman, and
flung into the public sewer. In the event of the sick
Protestant recovering, after having rejected the viati-
cum, he was to be condemned to perpetual confinement
CHAP. x. FLIGHT FROM FRANCE. 159
at the galleys, or imprisonment for life, with confisca-
tion of all his property.
Crushed, tormented, and persecuted by these terrible
enactments, the Huguenots felt that life in France had
become intolerable. It is true, there was an alterna-
tive— conversion. But Louis XIV., with all his power,
could not prevail against the impenetrable rampart of
conscience, and a large proportion of the Huguenots
persistently refused to be converted. They would not
act the terrible lie to God, and seek their personal
safety at the price of hypocrisy. They would not
become Roman Catholics ; they would rather die.
There was only one other means of relief — flight
from France. Yet it was a frightful alternative, — to
tear themselves from the country they loved, from their
friends and relatives, from the homes of their youth
and the graves of their kindred, and fly — they knew
not whither. The thought of self-banishment was so
agonising that many hesitated long and prepared to
endure much before taking the irrevocable step ; and
many more prepared to suffer death rather than leave
their country and their homes.
Indeed, to fly in any direction became increasingly
difficult from day to day. The frontiers were strongly
patrolled by troops and gensdarmes; the coast was
closely watched by an armed coast-guard, while ships
of war cruised at sea to intercept and search outward-
bound vessels. The law was strictly enforced against
all persons taken in the act of flight. Under the
original edict, detected fugitives were to be condemned
to the galleys for life, while their denouncers were to be
rewarded with half their goods. But this punishment
was not considered sufficiently severe ; and on the 7th
of May, 1686, the King issued another edict, proclaim-
ing that any captured fugitives, as well as any person
found acting as their guide, would be condemned to
death.
Amidst the general proscription, a few distinguished
exceptions were made by the King, who granted pei-
160 THE BANISHED PASTORS. CHAP. X.
mission to several laymen, in return for past public
services, to leave the kingdom and settle abroad.
Amongst these were Marshal Schomberg, one of the
first soldiers of France, who had been commander-in-
chief of its armies, and the Marquis de Ruvigny, one of
its ablest ambassadors, — whose only crime consisted in
being Protestants. The gallant Admiral Duquesne
also, the first sailor of France, was a Huguenot. The
King sent for him, and urged him to abjure his re-
ligion. But the old hero, pointing to his gray hairs,
replied, " For sixty years, sire, have I rendered unto
Cresar the things which are Cresar's ; suffer me still
to render unto God the things which are God's."
Duquesne was permitted to end his few remaining
days in France, for he was then in his eightieth year ;
but his two sons were allowed to emigrate, and they
shortly after departed into Holland.
The banished pastors were treated with especial
severity. Fifteen days only had been allowed them
to fly beyond the frontier ; and if they tarried longer
in their agonising leave-taking of their flocks, they
were liable to be sent to the galleys for life. Yet
with that exquisite malignity which characterised
the acts of the monarch and his abettors, they were in
some cases refused the necessary permits to pass the
frontier, in order that they might thereby be brought
within the ran<re of the dreadful penalties proclaimed
by the Act of Revocation. The pastor Claude, one of
the most eloquent preachers of his day, who had been
one of the ministers of the great church at Charenton,
was ordered to quit France within twenty-four hours ;
and he set out forthwith, accompanied by one of the
King's footmen, who saw him as far as Brussels.
The other pastors of Paris were allowed two days
to make their preparations for leaving. More time
was allowed to those in the provinces ; but they were
prevented carrying anything with them, — even their
children, — all under seven years of age being taken
from them, to be brought up in the religion of their
CHAP. x. THE FRENCH FRONTIER GUARDED. 1C1
persecutors. Even infants at the breast were to be
given up ; and many a mother's heart was torn by con-
flicting feelings, — the duty of following a husband on
the road to banishment, or remaining behind to suckle
her helpless infant.
When all the banished pastors had fled, those of
their flocks who still remained steadfast prepared to
follow them into exile ; for many felt it easier to be
martyrs than apostates. Those who possessed goods
and movables, made haste to convert them into money
in such a way as to excite the least possible suspicion ;
for spies were constantly on the watch, ready to inform
against them. Such as were engaged in trade, com-
merce, and manufactures, were surrounded by difficul-
ties ; yet they were prepared to dare and risk all
rather than abjure their religion. They prepared to
close their workships, their tanneries, their paper-mills,
their silk-manufactories, and the various branches of
industry which they had built up, and to fly with the
merest wreck of their fortunes into other countries.
The owners of land had still greater difficulties to
encounter. They were in a measure rooted to the
soil ; and according to the royal edict, if they emi-
grated without special permission, their property was
liable to immediate confiscation by the state. Never-
theless, many of these, too, resolved to brave all risks
and fly from France.
When the full tide of the emigration set in, it was
found difficult to guard the extensive French frontier,
so as effectually to prevent the escape of the fugitives.
The high-roads as well as the by-ways were regularly
patrolled day and night, and all the bridges leading
out of France were strongly guarded. But the fugi-
tives avoided the frequented routes, and crossed the
frontier through forests, over trackless wastes, or by
mountain-paths, where no patrols were on the watch ;
and they thus contrived to escape in large numbers
into Switzerland, Germany, and Holland. They mostly
travelled by night, not in bands but in small parties,
11
162 GALLEY-SLA VES FOR THE FAITH. CHAP. x.
and often singly. When the members of a family
prepared to fly, they fixed a rendezvous in some town
across the nearest frontier; then, after prayer and
taking a tender leave of each other, they set out
separately, and made for the agreed point of meeting,
usually travelling by different routes.
Many of the fugitives were of course captured by
the King's agents. Along so extensive a frontier, it
was impossible to elude their vigilance. To strike
terror into such of the remaining Huguenots as might
be contemplating their escape, the prisoners who were
caught were led as a Show through the principal
towns, with heavy chains round their necks, in some
cases weighing over fifty pounds. Sometimes they
were placed in carts, with irons on their feet, —
the chains being made fast to the cart. They were
forced to make long marches; and, when they sank
under fatigue, blows compelled them to rise. After
they had been thus driven through the chief towns
by way of example, the prisoners were sent to the
galleys, — where there were already more than a
thousand by the end of 1686. The galley-slaves in-
cluded men of all conditions : pastors and peasants ;
old men with white hairs and boys of tender years ;
magistrates, officers, and men of gentle blood, mixed
with thieves and murderers ; and no discrimination
whatever was made in their classification, or in the
barbarity of their treatment.
These cruelties were, however, of no avail in check-
ing the emigration. The Huguenots continued to flee
out of France in all directions. The Great Louis, still
bent on their " conversion," increased his guards along
the frontiers. The soldiers were rewarded in propor-
tion to the captures they effected. The aid of the
frontier peasantry was also invited, and thousands of
them joined the troops in guarding the highways,
the bridges, the ferries, and all the avenues leading
out of France. False statements were published by
authority, to the effect that such of the emigrants as
CITAP. x. THE SYSTEM OF EMIGRATION. 163
had reached foreign countries were destitute and
starving. It was alleged that ten thousand of them
had died of misery in England, and that most of
those who survived were imploring permission to
return to France and abjure !
In vain ! — the emigration continued. Some bought
their way across the frontier ; others fought their way.
They went in all sorts of disguises ; some as pedlars,
others as soldiers, huntsmen, valets and beggars. Some,
to disarm suspicion, even pretended to sell chaplets
and rosaries. The Huguenots conducted the emigra-
tion on a regular system. They had Itineraries pre-
pared and secretly distributed, in which the safest
routes and hiding-places were described in detail, — a
sort of " underground railroad," such as existed in
the United States before the abolition of slavery
Many escaped through the great forest of Ardennes
into Luxembourg ; others through the Vosges moun-
tains into Germany ; and others through the passes ol
the Jura into Switzerland. Some were shot by the
soldiers and peasantry; a still greater number were
sent to the galleys; yet many thousands of them
nevertheless continued to make their escape.
Many a tradition is still preserved in Huguenot
families of the hairbreadth escapes of their ancestors
in those terrible times. Thus De la Rive (afterwards
an officer under William III.) and his wife escaped
across the frontier into Holland in the guise of orange-
sellers, leading a donkey and panniers. The young
D'Albiacs, whose blood now intermingles with the
ducal family of Roxburgh, were smuggled out of the
country in hampers. The sisters De la Cherois, whose
descendants still exist in Ireland, fled in disguise
on horseback, travelling only after dark, and conceal-
ing themselves in the woods in the daytime. The
two La Condamine chikh'en, whose descendants still
flourish in England and Scotland, were carried off in
baskets slung across a mule, travelling only at night.
The ancestor of the Courtaulds, now settled in Essex,
164 CRUELTIES TO WOVEN. CHAP. x.
was carried off, when quite a boy, in a donkey's pan-
nier from Saintonge to the northern frontier, accom-
panied by a faithful servant, who, upon approaching
any town where their progress was likely to be
opposed, covered up the child with greens and garden
stuffs.
The flight of men was accompanied by that of
women, old and young ; often by mothers with
infants in their arms. The hearts of the women
were especially lacerated by the cruelties inflicted on
them through their affections ; by the tearing of their
children from them for the purpose of being educated
in convents; by the quartering of dragoons in their
dwellings ; and by the various social atrocities which
preceded as well as followed the Edict of Revocation.1
While many Protestant heads of families were ready
to conform, in order to save their families from insult
and outrage by a lawless and dissolute soldiery, the
women often refused to follow their example, and
entreated their husbands to fly from the land where
such barbarities had become legalised, and where a
daily war was being carried on against womanhood
and childhood — against innocence, morality, religion,
and virtue. To women of pure feelings, life under
such circumstances was more intolerable even than
death.
1 The frightful cruelty of these dioceses to enforce them without
measures shocked the Roman fail. — COQUEREL, Histolre des
Catholic clergy themselves, and, Eglises du Desert, i. p. 68. The
to their honour be it said, in priests who visited the slaves at
many districts they refrained the galleys were horribly shocked
from putting them in force. On at the cruelties practised on them,
discovering this, Louis XIV., The Abbe Jean Bion shed tears
furiously zealous for the extirpa- at the sight of the captives
tion of heresy, ordered his minis- covered with bleeding wounds
ter De Portchartrain to address a inflicted by the whip, and he
circular to the bishops of France, could not resist the impression :
charging them with want of zeal " Their blood preached to me/'
in carrying his edicts into effect, says he in his Relation, " and I
and calling upon them to require felt myself a Protestant."
the curates of their respective
CHAT. X. ESCAPE Of WOMEN FROM F&ANCE. 163
Everywhere, therefore, were the Huguenot women,
as well as the Huguenot men, found fleeing into exile.
They mostly fled in disguise, often alone, to join their
husbands or fathers at the appointed rendezvous.
Benoit says that they cut off their hair, disfigured
their faces with dyes, assumed the dress of pedlars or
lacqueys, and condescended to the meanest employ-
ments, for the purpose of disarming suspicion and en-
suring their escape.1 Young women, in many cases of
gentle birth, who under ordinary circumstances would
have shrunk from the idea of walking a few miles
from home, prepared to set out upon a journey on foot
of hundreds of miles, passing through woods, along un-
frequented paths, across mountain-ranges, and braving
all dangers, so that they might but escape, though it
were with their bare lives, from the soil of France.
The adventures of some of the women who suc-
ceeded in making their escape are full of romance, and
cannot be read without painful interest. Thus, Lord
du Bourdieu's widow, the daughter of Count de la
Yalade, escaped disguised as a peasant, with her infant
son slung in a shawl at her back, passing through the
frontier guards into German Switzerland, from whence
1 Women of quality, even sixty sickness, dumbness, and even in-
and seventy years of age, who sanity. Some went disguised as
had, so to speak, never placed a men ; and some, too delicate and
foot upon the ground except to small to pass as grown men,
cross their apartments or to stroll donned the dress of lacqueys,
in an avenue, travelled a hundred and followed on foot, through
leagues, to some village which the mud, a guide on horseback,
had been indicated by a guide. who assumed the character of a
Girls of fifteen, of every rank, man of importance. Many of
exposed themselves to the same these females reached Rotterdam
hazard. They drew wheelbar- in their borrowed garments, and
rows, they bore manure, panniers, hastening to the foot of the
and other burdens. They dis- pulpit, before they had time to
figured their faces with dyes to assume a more decent garb, pub-
embrown their complexion, with lished their repentance of their
ointments or juices that blistered compulsory signature. — ELIE
their skins, and gave them a BENOIT — Histoire de VEdit de
wrinkled aspect. Women and Nante*, v. 561. 953.
girls were seen to counterfeit
166 JUDITB MARIENGAULT. CttAP. *.
she found her way to London and rejoined her rela-
tives.1 Another young married woman, equally noble,
though untitled — Judith Mariengault, from whom some
of the best blood in America has come — has herself told
the story of her flight. She says : " We quitted our
home in the night, leaving the soldiers in their beds,
and abandoning to them our home and all that it con-
tained. Well knowing that we should be sought for
in every direction, we remained ten days concealed in
Dauphiny, at the house of a good woman, who had
no thought of betraying us." Making a long circuit
through Germany and Holland, and suffering many
misfortunes, the family at last reached London, from
whence they took ship to Carolina. But their suffer-
ings were not ended. " The red fever," Judith con-
tinues, " broke out on board the ship : many of us died
of it, and among them our aged mother. We touched
at the island of Bermuda, where the vessel which
carried us was seized. We spent all our money there,
and it was with great difficulty that we procured a
passage on board of another ship. New misfortunes
awaited us in Carolina. At the end of eighteen months
we lost our eldest brother, who succumbed to such
unusual fatigues ; so that after our departure from
France we endured all that it was possible to suffer. I
was six months without tasting bread, besides working
like a slave ; and during three or four years I never
had the wherewithal completely to satisfy the hunger
which devoured me/' " Yet," adds this admirable
woman, " God accomplished great things in our favour
by giving us the strength necessary to support these
trials."
At a village in Champagne, during a dreadful day of
persecution, when blood was streaming in the streets,
two soldiers entered the house of a Protestant, and
after killing some of the inmates, one of them, seeing
1 The child she carried across to manhood, and became minis-
the frontier on her back, grew up ter of the Savoy church, London.
CHAP. x. HENRI DE DIB ON. 167
an infant in a cradle, rushed at it with his drawn
sword and stabbed it, but not fatally. The child was
snatched up by a bystander, who exclaimed, " At least
the babe is not a Protestant," and saved it.1 The child
proved to be a boy, and was given to a Protestant
woman to nurse, who had a male child of her own at
the breast. The boys grew up together. When old
enough, they emigrated into Holland together ; entered
the ariny of the Prince of Orange, accompanied him to
England, and fought in Ireland together. There they
settled and married ; and the son of the one emigre'
married the daughter of the other. Such were the
ancestors of the Morell family, which has produced so
many distinguished ministers of religion and men of
science in England.
Many fled with nothing but their clothes and their
Bibles. Such was the case of Henri de Dibon, whose
short story is contained in a leaf written inside the
Bible 2 carried with him in his flight, as thus related
to the late Rev. George Stanley Faber, D.D., by his
maternal grandmother, Margaret de Dibon, the grand-
daughter of the refugee : —
" This Bible once belonged to M. de Dibon, a Hugue-
not gentleman, whose family estate and residence were
situated in the Isle of France.
" At the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in the
year 1685, M. de Dibon was arrested by order of Louis
XIV. ; and on his firm refusal to abandon the religion
of his ancestors, his whole property was confiscated,
and he himself was thrown into prison.
" Before the arrival of the dragoons at his residence,
he had time sufficient to bury this, his family Bible,
within a chest in his garden. There he left it, in
hopes of some day recovering what he esteemed his
best treasure.
1 A Sketch of the Life and 3 This French Bible is still in
Character of the Rev. J. Morell, the possession of the Faber family,
LL.D., by the Rev. J. E. Wref ord, and is greatly prized by them.
F.S.A.
168 JEAN MARTEILHE. CHAP. x.
" While in confinement he was frequently tortured
by the application of fire to wreaths of straw, which
were fastened round his legs ; but through the grace of
God, he was enabled to persevere in making a good
confession. This particular torture was especially re-
sorted to, in consequence of his being a victim to the
gout.
" He at length effected his escape ; but ere he quitted
his native land for ever, he had the resolution to visit
the estate of his forefathers, now no longer his, for the
purpose of recovering his Bible. This he accomplished;
and with the word of God in his hand, he finally
reached England in the reign of William III. of
glorious memory."
Jean Marteilhe of Bergerac, in his highly interesting
autobiography,1 has described the remarkable diffi-
culties which Huguenot young ladies occasionally
encountered in their efforts to escape. He had himself
been taken prisoner in his attempt to escape across
the French frontier near Marienbourg, and was lodged
in the gaol at Tournay to wait his trial. While lying
there, five Huguenot fugitives, who had been captured
by the dragoons, were ushered into his cell. Three
of these he at once recognised, through their disguises,
as gentlemen of Bergerac ; but the other two he failed
to recognise. They eventually proved to be two young
ladies, Mademoiselle Madras and Conceil of Bergerac,
disguised as boys, who had set out, though it was
winter, to make their escape from France through the
forest of Ardennes. They had travelled thirty leagues
on foot, under dripping trees, along broken roads, and
by almost trackless paths, enduring cold, hunger, and
1 The narrative of Jean Mar- under the fictitious name of "J.
teilhe, entitled Merrwires d'un Willington," in the following
Protestant condamne aux Ga- year. It has since been repub-
Ures de France pour cause de lished by the Religious Tract
Religion, ecrits par lui-meme, Society, under the title of Auto-
originally appeared at Rotterdam biography of a French Protestant
in 1755, and was translated into condemned to the Galleys for tlie
English by Oliver Goldsmith, sake of his Religion.
YOUTHFUL GALLEY-SLAVES. 169
privations, " with a firmness and constancy," says
Marteilhe, " extraordinary for persons brought up in
refinement, and who previous to this expedition would
not have been able to walk a league." They were,
however, captured and put in gaol; and when they
recognised in their fellow-prisoners other Huguenot
fugitives from Bergerac, they were so happy that they
wept for joy. Mai'teilhe strongly urged that the gaoler
should be informed of their sex, to which the young
ladies assented, when they were removed to a separate
cell. They were afterwards tried, and condemned to
be immured in the Convent of the Repentants at
Paris, where they wept out the rest of their lives and
died.
Marteilhe himself refused all the tempting offers, as
well as the dreadful threats, which were made to induce
him to abjure his religion ; and at seventeen years of age
he was condemned to be sent to the galleys. Marched
from gaol to gaol, and from town to town, loaded with
chains like his fellow-prisoners, he was first placed in
the galleys at Dunkirk, where he endured the most
horrible hardships1 during twelve years ; after which,
on the surrender of Dunkirk to the English, he was
marched, with twenty-two other Protestant galley-
slaves, still loaded with chains, through Paris and the
other principal towns, to Marseilles, to serve out the
remainder of his sentence.
There were other galley-slaves of even more tender
years than Marteilhe. Andrew Bosquet was only six-
teen, and he remained at the galleys twenty-six years.
Francis Bourry and Matthew Morel were but fifteen;
and only a few years since, Admiral Boudin, maritime
prefect at Toulon, in turning over the ancient records
of his department, discovered the register of a child
1 What life at the galleys was, the galleys, by Athanase Coc-
may be learned from Marteilhe's querel fils, entitled Leg Formats
own narrative above cited, as well pour la Foi (Galley- Slaves for
as from a highly interesting ac- the Faith), published at Paris by
count of the Protestants sent to Levy Brothers.
170 AGED GALLEY-SLAVES. CHAP. X
who had been sent to the galleys at twelve years of
age " for having accompanied his father and mother to
the preaching " !
On the other hand, age did not protect those found
guilty of adhering to their faith. David de Caumont,
baron of Montbelon, was seventy years old when he
was sent to the galleys. Antoine Astruc was of
the same age ; and Antoine Morlier seventy-one.
Nor did distinction in learning protect the hapless
Protestants ; for the celebrated counsellor of the King,
Louis de Marolles, was sent to the galleys with the
rest. At first, out of regard for his eminence, the
gaoler chained him by only one foot ; but next day, by
the express orders of Louis the Great, a heavy chain
was fixed round his neck. It was while chained with
all sorts of malefactors that Marolles compiled his
Discourse on Providence, which was afterwards pub-
lished and translated into English. Marolles was
a profound mathematician — the author of one of the
best treatises on algebra ; and, while chained in his
dungeon, he proposed a problem to the mathematicians
of Paris which was afterwards inserted in the works of
Ozanam.
Another distinguished galley-slave was John Huber,
father of three illustrious sons — Huber of the Bird/j,
Huber of the Ants, and Huber of the Bees. The
following touching incident is from the elder Huber's
journal : — " We arrived one night at a little town,
chained, my wife and my children, with fourteen
galley-slaves. The priests came to us, offering freedom
on condition that we abjured. We had agreed to pre-
serve a profound silence. After them came the women
and children of the place, who covered us with mud.
I made my little party fall on their knees, and we put
up this prayer, in which all the fugitives joined :
' Gracious God, who seest the wrongs to which we are
hourly exposed, give us strength to support them, and
to forgive in charity those who wrong us. Strengthen
us from good even unto better.' The people about us
. X. FLIGHT FROM FRANCE SY SEA. 171
expected to hear complaints and outcries : our words
astonished them. We finished our little act of worship
by singing the hundred and sixteenth psalm. At this
the women began to weep. They washed off the mud
with which our children's faces had been covered, and
they sought permission to have us lodged in a barn
separate from the other galley-slaves, which was done
at their request."
To return to the fugitives who evaded the dragoons,
police, and coast-guard, and succeeded in making their
escape from France. Many of them fled by sea, for it
was difficult to close that great highway, or to guard
the coast so strictly as to preclude the escape of those
who dared to trust themselves upon it. Some of the
fugitives from inland places, who had never seen
the sea in their lives, were so appalled at the sight
of the wide and stormy waste of waters, and so
agonised by the thought of tearing themselves from
their native land for ever, that their hearts sank
within them, and they died in sheer despair, with-
out being able to accomplish their purpose. Others,
stronger and more courageous, prepared to brave all
risks ; and on the first opportunity that offered, they
put out to sea, from all parts of the coast, in open
boats, in shallops, in fishing-smacks, and in trading-
ships, eager to escape from France in anything that
would float.
"The Protestants of the seaboard," says Weiss, "got
away in French, English, and Dutch merchant- vessels,
whose masters hid them under bales of goods and
heaps of coals, and in empty casks, where they had
only the bunghole to breathe through. There they
remained, crowded one upon another, until the ship
sailed. Fear of discovery and of the galleys gave
them courage to suffer. Persons brought up in every
luxury, pregnant women, old men, invalids, and chil-
dren vied with each other in constancy to escape from
their persecutors, — often risking themselves in mere
boats upon voyages the thought of which would in
172 PRIVATIONS AND DANGERS AT SEA. CHAP. X
ordinary times have made them shudder. A Normal
gentleman, Count de Marance', passed the Channel, in
the depth of winter, with forty persons, amongst whom
were several pregnant women, in a vessel of seven
tons burthen. Overtaken by a storm, they remained
long at sea, without provisions or hope of succour,
dying of hunger ; he, the countess, and all the passen-
gers, reduced, for sole sustenance, to a little melted
snow, with which they appeased their burning thirst,
and moistened the parched lips of their weeping
children, until they landed, half-dead, upon England's
shores."
The Lord of Castlefranc, near Rochelle, was even
less fortunate than the Count de Marance'. He was
captured at sea, in an open boat, while attempting
to escape to England with his wife and family. Three
of his sons and three of his daughters thus taken,
were sent to the Caribbee Islands as slaves. His three
other daughters were detained in France in strict
confinement ; and after much suffering, during which
they continued steadfast to their faith, they were at
length permitted to depart for Geneva. The father
contrived in some way to escape from France and to
reach London, where he lived for many years in
Bunhill Fields. The six slaves in the Caribbee Islands
were eventually liberated by the crew of an English
vessel, and brought to London. The three young men
entered the English army, under William HI. Two of
them were killed in battle in Flanders, and the third
retired on half-pay, settling at Portarlington in Ireland,
where he died.
Among the many who escaped in empty casks may
be mentioned the Misses Raboteau, of Pont-Gibaud,
near Rochelle. Their relatives had become " new
Catholics," by which name the converts from Pro-
testantism, often pretended, were called; but the two
young ladies refused to be converted, and they waited
an opportunity for making their escape from France.
The means were at length provided by an exiled rela-
CHAP. x. THE MISSES RABOTEAU. 173
live, John Charles Raboteau, who had emigrated long
before, and settled as a wine-merchant in Dublin.
He carried on a brisk trade with the French wine-
growers, and occasionally sailed in his own ship to
Rochelle, where he became the temporary guest of his
relatives. At one of his visits, the two young ladies
confided to him that they had been sentenced to adopt
the alternative of either marrying two Roman Catholic
gentlemen selected for their husbands, or being shut
up in a convent for life. There was one other alterna-
tive— flight, — upon which they had resolved, if their
uncle would assist them. He at once assented, and
made arrangements for their escape. Two horses were
obtained, on which they rode by night to Rochelle,
where lodgings had been taken for them at the house
of a widow. There was still, however, the greater
difficulty to be overcome of getting the delicate freight
put on board. Raboteau had been accustomed to take
to Ireland, as part of his cargo, several large casks of
French apples ; and in two of such casks the young
ladies were carried on board ship. They reached
Dublin in safety, where they settled and married, and
their descendants still survive.1
The Rev. Philip Skelton mentions the case of a
French gentlewoman brought from Bordeaux to Ports-
mouth by a sea-captain of his acquaintance, which
shows the agonies of mind which must have been
endured by these noble women before they could
bring themselves to fly alone across the sea to England
for refuge. This lady had sold all the property she
could convert into money, with which she purchased
jewels, as being the easiest to carry. She contrived to
1 One of them married Alder- cated and sold as belonging to
man Peter Barre, whose son was " Religionaires fugitifs da roy-
the famous Isaac Barre, M.P., aume pour cause de la religion."
and Privy Councillor ; the other Several of their descendants have
married Mr. Stephen Chaigneau, filled important offices in the
descended from an ancient family State, Army, and Church of
in the Charente, where their es- England and Ireland,
tate of Labellouiere was confis-
174 DA VID GARRIC. CHAP. X.
get on board the Englishman's ship by night, bringing
with her the little casket of jewels — her sole fortune.
She remained in a state of the greatest fear and
anxiety till the ship was under sail. But no sooner
did she find herself fairly out at sea and the land
disappearing in the distance, than she breathed freely,
and began to give way to her feelings of joy and
gratitude. This increased in proportion as she neared
England, though about to land there an exile, a solitary
woman, and a foreigner ; and no sooner did she reach
the shore than she threw herself down and passion-
ately kissed the ground, exclaiming, " Have I at last
attained my wishes ? Yes, gracious God ! I thank
Thee for this deliverance from a tyranny exercised
over my conscience, and for placing me where Thou
alone art to reign over it by Thy word, till I shall
finally lay down my head upon this beloved earth ! " l
Another notable escape by sea was that of David
Garric, or Garigue, the grandfather of Garrick, the
celebrated actor. He first escaped himself, next his
wife escaped, and finally, more than two years later,
their only child escaped, whom they had left an infant
at nurse. The story is best told in the touching little
narrative of the refugee himself: —
" The 5th October, 1685. — I, David Garric, arrived at
London, having come from Bourdeaux the 31st August,
running away from the persecution of our Holy Re-
ligion. I passed through Saintonge, Poitou, and Brit-
tany. I embarked at St. Malo for Guernsey, where I
remained for the space of a month, leaving everything,
even my wife and a little boy four months old, called
Peter Garric, who was then out at nurse at the Bastide,
near Bourdeaux.
" The 5th December, 1685, English style. — God gave
me my wife at London. She embarked from Bour-
deaux the 19th November, from whence she saved
1 PHILIP SKELTON [Rector of passion for the French Protest
Fintona, county Tyrone] — Com- ant Refugees recommended, 1751
CHAP. x. SUFFOCATION OF UUOUENOTS. 175
herself, and in a bark of 14 ton, being hid in a hole,
and was a month upon sea with strong tempests, and
at great peril of being lost and taken by our perse-
cutors, who are very inveterate. Pray God convert
them. * * *
"The 22d May, 1687.— Little Peter arrived at Lon-
don, by the grace of God, in the ship of John White,
with a servant, Mary Mongorier, and I paid for their
passage 22 guineas." l
The measures adopted by the French king to pre-
vent the escape of fugitives by sea, proved as futile as
those employed to prevent their escape by land. The
coast-guard was increased, and more tempting rewards
were offered for the capture of the flying Protestants.
The royal cruisers were set to watch every harbour
and inlet, to prevent any vessel setting sail without a
most rigid search of the cargo for concealed Hugue-
nots.
When it became known that many had escaped in
empty casks, provision was made to meet the case, and
the royal order was issued that, before any ship was
allowed to set sail for a foreign port, the hold should
be fumigated with deadly gas, so that any hidden
Huguenot who could not be detected might thus be
suffocated.2 This expedient was only of a piece with
the refined and malignant cruelty of the Great Louis.
But it failed like the other measures ; for the Huguenots
still continued to make their escape.
It can never be known, with anything approaching
accuracy, how many persons fled from France during
this Great Exodus. Vauban, the military engineer,
writing only a few years after the Revocation, said
1 Our acknowledgments are sition qui, lorsq'on y mettait le
due to Sir Bernard Burke, Ulster feu developpait une odeur mor-
king-at-arms, for the copy of the telle dans tons les recoins du
document (Heard Collection. Col- navire, de sorte que, en la respi-
lepe of Arms, London) from rant, ceux qui s'etaient caches
which we make the above ex- trouvaient une mort certaine I "
tracts. — ROYER — Hittoire de la Colon ie
2 " On se serrait d'une compo- Fran$ai$e en Prnste, p. 153.
176 GREAT LOSS TO FRANCE. CHAP. X
that " France had lost a hundred thousand inhabitants,
sixty millions of money, nine thousand sailors, twelve
thousand tried soldiers, six hundred officers, and its
most nourishing manufactures." But the emigration
was not then by any means at its height; and for
many years after, the Huguenots continued to swarm
out of France and join their exiled compatriots in
other lands. Sismondi computed the total number of
emigrants at from three to four hundred thousand ;
and he was further of opinion that an equal number
perished in prison, on the scaffold, at the galleys, and
in their attempts to escape.1
The emigration gave the death-blow to several great
branches of industry. Hundreds of manufactories
were closed, whole villages were depopulated, many
large towns became half deserted, and a large extent
of land went entirely out of cultivation.2 The skilled
Dutch cloth-workers, whom Colbert had induced to
settle at Abbeville, emigrated in a body, and their
manufacture was extinguished. At Tours, where some
40,000 persons had been employed in the silk manu-
factures, the number fell to little more than 4000 ; and
instead of 8000 looms at work there remained only
about 100 ; while of 800 mills, 730 were closed. Of
the 400 tanneries which had before enriched Lorraine,
Weiss says there remained but 54 in 1698. The popu-
lation of Nantes, one of the most prosperous cities of
France, was reduced from 80,000 to less than one-half;
and a blow was struck at its prosperity from which it
has never recovered.
1 Boulainvillers states that un- in the later years of Louis XIV. 's
der the intendancy of Lamoignon reign : — " The cultivation of the
de Baville, a hundred thousand soil is almost abandoned ; the
persons were destroyed by pre- towns and the country are becom-
mature death in the single pro- ing depopulated. All industries
vince of Languedoc, and that languish, and fail to support the
one-tenth of them perished by labourers. France has become as
fire, strangulation, or the wheel. but a huge hospital without pro-
— DE FELICE, p. 340. visions."
2 Fenelon thus describes France
CHAP. ^.PROTESTANTISM APPARENTLY STAMPTOUT.W1.
The Revocation proved almost as fatal to the pros-
perity of Lyons as it did to that of Tours and Nantes.
That city had originally been indebted for its silk manu-
factures to the civil and religious wars of Sicily, Italy,
and Spain, which occasioned numerous refugees from
those countries to settle in Lyons and carry on their
trade. And now the same religious persecutions which
had made the prosperity of Lyons, threatened to prove
its ruin. Of about 12,000 artizans employed in the
silk manufacture, some 9000 fled into Switzerland
and other countries. The industry of the place was
for a time completely prostrated. More than a hun-
dred years passed before it was restored to its former
prosperity ; and then only to suffer another equally
staggering blow from the violence and outrages
which accompanied the outbreak of the French Revo-
lution.
Although Protestantism seemed to be utterly
stamped out in France during the century which
followed the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes —
although its ministers were banished, its churches and
schools suppressed, and it was placed entirely beyond
the pale of the law, — it nevertheless continued to have
an active existence. Banished ministers from time to
time returned secretly, to minister to their flocks ; but
they were liable to be seized and suffer death in conse-
quence,— as many as twenty-nine Protestant pastors
having been hanged between 1684 and 1762. During
the same period thousands of their followers were sent
to the galleys, and died there. The names of 1546 ot
these illustrious galle3'-slaves are given in Les Formats
pour la Foi,lout the greater number have long since been
forgotten on earth. The principal offence for which
they were sent to the galleys was, for attending the
Protestant meetings, which still continued to be held ;
for the Protestants, after the Revocation, constituted a
sort of underground church, regularly organised, though
its meetings were held by night, in forests, in caves
among the hills, or in unsuspected places, and even
12
178
CHURCHES OF THE DESERT.
CHAP. X.
in the heart of large towns and cities, in all parts of
France.1
Without pursuing the subject of the sufferings of
the Huguenots who remained in France, — of whom
there were more than a million, notwithstanding the
frightful persecutions to which they continued to be
subjected, — let us now follow the fugitives into the
countries in which they found a refuge, and observe
the important influence which they exercised, not
only on their industrial prosperity, but also on their
political history.
1 The Churches of the Desert,
as they were called, continued to
exist down to the period of the
French Revolution, when Protes-
tantism in France was again al-
lowed openly to show itself. An
interesting account of the Pro-
testant church in France during
this " underground " period is to
be found in Charles Coqnerel's
Histolre des Eglises du Desert, in
2 vols., Paris, 1841. The present
author has also endeavoured to
describe the same subject in a
separate book, entitled Tlie Hu-
guenots in France, after the
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
CHAPTER XI.
THE HUGUENOTS AND THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION
OF 1688.
THE Exodus of the French Protestants exercised a
highly important influence on European politics.
Among its other effects, it contributed to establish
religious and political freedom in Switzerland, and to
render it, in a measure, the Patmos of Europe. It
strengthened the foundations of liberty in the then
comparatively insignificant electorate of Branden-
burg,— which has since become developed into the
great German Empire. It fostered the strength and
increased the political power and commercial wealth of
the States of Holland. And, lastly, it contributed
to the success of the English Revolution of 1C88, and
to the establishment of the British Constitution on its
present basis.
Long before the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes,
the persecutions of the French Protestants had excited
the pity and indignation of Europe ; and Switzerland
and the northern nations vied with each other in ex-
tending to them their sympathy and their help. The
principal seats of Protestantism being in Languedoc,
Dauphiny, and the south western provinces of France,
the first emigrants readily passed across the frontier,
through Jura and Savoy into Switzerland, where they
made for the asylum of Geneva. That city had
in a measure been created by the genius of Calvin,
who strove to make it a sort of Christian Sparta.
Under his regime the place became entirely changed
180 INDEPENDENCE OF GENEVA. CHAP. XI.
It had already emancipated itself from the authority
of the Duke of Savoy, and established alliances with
adjoining cantons for the purpose of ensuring its
independence, when Calvin undertook the administra-
tion of its ecclesiastical policy. There can be no doubt
as to the rigour as well as the severity of Calvin's rule ;
but Geneva was surrounded by ferocious enemies, and
had to struggle for its very life. Mignet has in a few
words described the rapid progress made by that city :
"In less than half a century the face of Geneva
had become entirely changed. It passed through
three consecutive revolutions. The first delivered
it from the Duke of Savoy, who lost his delegated
authority in the attempt to convert it into an abso-
lute sovereignty. The second introduced into Geneva
the Reformed worship, by which the sovereignty
of the bishop was destroyed The third constituted
the Protestant administration of Geneva, and the
subordination to it of the civil power. The first of
these revolutions gave Geneva its independence of the
ducal power ; the second, its moral regeneration and
political sovereignty ; the third its greatness. These
three revolutions not only followed each other ; they
were linked together. Switzerland was bent on liberty,
the human mind on emancipation. The liberty of
Switzerland made the independence of Geneva, the
emancipation of the human mind- effected its reforma-
tion. These changes were not accomplished without
difficulties, nor without wars. But if they troubled
the peace of the city, if they agitated the people's
hearts, if they divided families, if they occasioned im-
prisonments, if they caused blood to be shed in the
streets, they tempered characters, they awoke minds,
they purified morals, they formed citizens and men,
and Geneva issued transformed from the trials through
which it passed. It had been subject, and it had
grown independent ; it had been ignorant, and it had
become one of the lights of Europe ; it had been a little
town, and it was now the Capital of a great Cause.
CHAP. xr. ASYLUM OF SWITZERLAND. 181
Its science, its constitution, its greatness, were the
work of France, through its exiles of the sixteenth
century, who, unable to realise their ideas in their own
country, had carried them into Switzerland, whose
hospitality they repaid by giving them a new worship,
and the spiritual government of many peoples." l
Geneva having thus been established as a great
Protestant asylum and stronghold, mainly through
the labours of Frenchmen — Calvin, Farel, De Beze,
D'Aubigne', and many more — the fugitive Protestants
naturally directed their steps thither in the first place.
In 1685, hundreds of them arrived in Geneva daily ;
but, as the place was already crowded, and the accom-
modation it provided was but limited, the greater
number of the new arrivals travelled onward, into the
interior cantons. Two years later, the refugees were
arriving in thousands, mostly from Dauphiny and
Lyons; the greater number of them being artizans.
While the persecution raged in Gex, close to the Swiss
frontier, it seemed as if the whole population were
flying. Geneva became so crowded with fugitives that
they had to camp out at night in the public squares.
The stream of emigrants was not less considerable
at Basle, Zurich, Berne, and Lausanne. The ambas-
sador of Louis XIV. wrote to his royal master : " The
fugitives continue to crowd to Zurich ; I met a number
of them on the road from Basle to Soleure." A month
later he informed his court that all the roads were full
of French subjects making for Berne and Zurich ; and
a third despatch informed Louis that carts laden with
fugitives were daily passing through the streets of
Basle. As the fugitives were mostly destitute, the
Protestant cantons provided a fund 2 to facilitate the
1 MIGNET — Memoires IRgfo- As the emigration increased, so
riqiies, Paris, 1854, pp. 385-7. did their bounty, nntil, in 1707,
* The city of Geneva was su- they contributed as much as
perbly bountiful. In 1685, the 234,672 florins towards the ex-
citizens contributed 88,161 florins penses of the emigration. "With-
to the Protestant refugee fund. in a period of forty years," says
182 LOUIS XIV. THREATENS GENEVA. CHAP. xi.
transit of those whom the country was unable to
maintain. Thus 15,591 persons were forwarded to
Germany at the expense of the League.
Louis XIV. beheld with vexation the departure of
so large a portion of his subjects, who preferred emi-
gration and destitution, to French citizenship and
forcible "conversion"; and he determined to interpose
with a strong hand, so as, if possible, to prevent their
further flight. Accordingly, when the people of Gex
went flying into Geneva in crowds, Louis called upon
the magistrates to expel them at once. The republican
city was comparatively small and unarmed, and un-
able to resist the will of a monarch so powerful as
Louis the Great then was. The magistrates, there-
fore, made a show of compliance with his orders, and
directed the expulsion of the fugitives by sound of
trumpet. The exiles left the city by the French gate
in a long and sad procession ; but at midnight the
citizens went forth and led them round the walls,
bringing them into Geneva again by the Swiss gate,
on the opposite side of the city.
On this proceeding being reported to Louis, he
vowed vengeance upon Geneva for thus trifling with
his express orders, and giving refuge to his contuma-
cious subjects. But Berne and Zurich having hastened
to proffer their support to Geneva, the French king's
threats remained unexecuted. The refugees, accord-
ingly, remained in Switzerland, and settled in the
various Protestant cantons, where they founded many
important branches of industry, which continue to
flourish to this day.
The Protestant refugees received a like cordial wel-
Graverol, in his History of the Berne and Vaud during the same
City of Nlsmes (London 1703), period exceeded 4,000,000 florins.
" Geneva furnished official con- This expenditure was altogether
tributions towards the assistance exclusive of the individual con-
of the refugees of the Edict of tributions and private hospitality
Nantes, amounting to not less of the Swiss people, which were
than 5,143.266 florins." The alike liberal and bountiful,
sums expended by the cantons of
CHAP. xi. FRENCH REFUGEES IN GERMANY. 183
coine in the provinces of North Germany, where they
succeeded in establishing many important and highly
nourishing colonies. The province of Brandenburg, —
the nucleus of modern Prussia, — had been devastated
and almost ruined by the Thirty Years' War. Its
trade and manufactures were destroyed, and a large
proportion of its soil lay uncultivated. The Elector
Frederick William was desirous of replenishing the
population ; and, with that view, he sought to attract
to it men of skill and industry from all quarters. The
Protestants whom the king of France was driving out
of his kingdom, were precisely the sort of men whom
the Elector desired for subjects ; and he sent repeated
invitations to them to come and settle in Brandenburg,
with the promise of liberty of worship, protection,
and hospitality. As early as 1661, numerous refugees
embraced his offer, and settled in Berlin, where they
prospered, increased, and eventually founded a flourish-
ing French Protestant colony.
The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes furnished
the Elector with an opportunity for renewing his
invitation with greater effect than before. The pro-
mulgation of the Edict of Paris was almost imme-
diately followed by the promulgation of the Edict of
Potsdam. By the latter edict, men of the Reformed
religion, driven out of France for conscience' sake, were
offered a free and safe retreat through all the dominions
of the Elector. They were promised rights, franchises,
and other advantages, on their settlement in Branden-
burg, " in order to relieve them, and in some sort to
make amends for the calamities with which Providence
had thought fit to visit so considerable a part of His
Church." Facilities were provided to enable the emi-
grants from France to reach the Prussian States. Those
from the southern and eastern provinces of France were
directed to make for the Rhine, and from thence to
find their way by boats to Frankfort-on-the-Maine, or
to Cleves, where the Prussian authorities awaited them
with subsidies, and the means for travelling eastward.
184 REFUGEES IN BRANDENBURG. CHAP. xi.
Free shipping was also provided for them at Amster-
dam, from whence they were to proceed to Hamburg,
where the Prussian resident was directed to assist them
in reaching their intended destination.
These measures shortly had the effect of attracting
large numbers of Huguenots into the northern pro-
vinces of Germany. The city of Frankfort became
crowded with exiles arriving from the eastern provinces
of France. The fugitives were everywhere made wel-
come, and succoured and helped. The Elector assisted
them with money out of his own private means. " I
will sell my plate," he said, " rather than they should
lack assistance."
On arriving in Brandenburg, the emigrants proceeded
to establish their colonies throughout the electorate.
Nearly every large town in Prussia had its French
church, and one or more French pastors. The cele-
brated Ancillon was pastor of the church at Berlin ;
and many of the Protestant gentry resorted thither,
attracted by his reputation. The Huguenot immi-
gration into Prussia consisted of soldiers, gentlemen,
men of letters and artists, traders, manufacturers, and
labourers.1
Numerous other bodies of the refugees settled in the
smaller states of Germany, in Denmark, in Sweden,
and even in Russia. Others crossed the ocean and
founded settlements abroad ; in Dutch Surinam, at the
Cape, and in the United States of America. The
settlement formed at the Cape of Good Hope was
of considerable importance. It was led by a nephew
of Admiral Duquesne, and included members of some
of the most distinguished families of France — Du
Plessis de Mornay, Roubaix de la Fontaine, De
Chavannes, De Villiers, Du Prd, Le Roux, Rous-
1 The personal history and Messrs. Ennan and Reclam. en-
particulars of the refugees who titled Memoires pour sercir a
settled in Prussia are given at THistoire dcs Refugtis Francois
full length in a work published dans leg Etats du Roi.
at Berlin, in 9 TO!S. 8vo, by
CHAP. xi. REFUGEES AT THE CAPE. 185
seau, D'Abling, De Cilliers, Le Sueur, Maude', aud
many more. The names of some of these are to be
found among the roll of governors of the colony
under the Dutch. The refugees mostly settled in
the Berg Valley, afterwards known as French Valley,
and now as De Fransche Hoek. Weiss says their de-
scendants number as many as 4000 persons ; and that
they are still Huguenots in religion, and proud of their
descent. The old families treasure their original
French Bibles, and Clement Marot's hymn books,
brought from France by their ancestors. A simple-
minded farmer of Stellenbosch, near Cape Town, now
represents the ancient ducal house of Du Plessis. It is
said that when Napoleon I., in the early part of his reign,
wished to rally round his throne all the old French
families he could induce to acknowledge his preten-
sions, he offered to the Du Plessis at the Cape the
restoral of his family title and estates ; but the offer
was declined. The Cape boer, in whose mind all
recollection of his family traditions had died away,
preferred his quiet vineyard on the Berg River to the
brilliant saloons of the Tuileries.1 The news of the outer
world took a long time to reach the secluded descend-
ants of the exiles. Weiss says that in 1828, when the
evangelical missionaries told them that religious tolera-
tion bad existed in France for forty years, the old men
shed tears, and could with difficulty believe that their
brethren could be so favourably treated in a country
from which their ancestors had been so cruelly expelled.
The emigration to the United States of America
was also of considerable importance. The first set-
tlement of Walloons was on Staten Island, where they
built a little church near Richmond, afterwards re-
moved to Wahle Bocht, or the " Bay of Foreigners,"
since corrupted into Wallabout. The Staten Island
refugees are still represented by the Disosways and
Orisons, who occupy the same farms which their an-
1 HENRY HALL, in Notet and Queries, April 24 1869.
186 REFUGEES IN AMERICA. CHAP. XL
cestors held a century and a half ago. Other settle-
ments were established in the State of New York, — at
Albany, under their patron Van Ransselaer, and at
Manhattan, where they were joined by a body of per-
secuted Vaudois from the south of France. At New
Rochelle also, in Westchester County, another settle-
ment was formed, which long continued to flourish.
Among the descendants of these emigrants, were the
celebrated families of Jay and De Lancey, well known
in the political history of the United States. In Mas-
sachussets they formed several settlements ; and the
celebrated Faneuil Hall, at Boston, — where the plea for
national independence was so early heard, — was the
gift of the son of a refugee. Worcester, in the same
state, was originally a Huguenot colony.
In Maryland, and in Virginia, other settlements were
formed; and from the Maurys and Fontaines of the
latter state, some of the best blood of America has
come. South Carolina was even styled " The Home
of the Huguenots," — nearly a thousand fugitives having
reached it from the ports of Holland alone. There
they formed three colonies, at Charlestown, at Santee,
and Orange Quarter on the Cooper River. The first
pastor of the Huguenot church at Charlestown was
Elias Prioleau, a descendant of Antoine Prioli, Dosre of
Venice in 1618. From the French settlers in Carolina
have come the Ravenels, Fravezants, Peronneaus,
Laurens, Neuvilles, Boudinots, Manigaults, Marions,
Legares, Hugers, Gaillards, Benorts, Bayards, Dupres,
Chevaliers, and many illustrious Americans.
But Holland and England constituted the principal
asylums of the exiled Huguenots — Holland in the
first instance, and England in the next ; many of the
refugees passing from the one country into the other,
in the course of the great political movements which
followed close upon the Revocation of the Edict of
Nantes.
Holland had long been a refuge for the persecuted
Protestants of Europe. During the religious troubles
CHAP. xi. REFUGEES IN HOLLAND. 187
of the sixteenth century, exiles fled to it from all
quarters — from Germany, Flanders, France, and Eng-
land. During the reign of Queen Mary, thirty thousand
English Protestants fled thither, who for the most part
returned to England on the accession of Elizabeth.
There were colonies of foreign exiles settled in nearly
all the United Provinces — of Germans in Friesland
and Guelderland, and of Walloons in Amsterdam,
Haarlem, Leyden, Delft, and other towns in North
and South Holland. And now these refugees were
joined by a still greater influx of persecuted Protes-
tants from all parts of France. Bayle designated
Holland " the great ark of the fugitives." It became
the chief European centre of free thought, free re-
ligion, and free industry. A healthy spirit of liberty
pervaded it, which awakened and cultivated the best
activities and energies of its people.
The ablest minds of France, proscribed by Louis
XIV., took refuge in the Low Countries, where they
taught from professors' chairs, preached from pulpits,
and spoke to all Europe through the medium of. the
printing-press. Descartes, driven from France, betook
himself to Holland, where he spent twenty years, and
published his principal philosophical works. It was
the retreat of Bayle, Huyghens, l Jurieu, and many
more of the best men of France, who there uttered
and printed freely what they could do nowhere else.
Among the most stirring books which emanated from
the French press in Holland, were those of Jurieu —
formerly professor of theology and Hebrew in the
university of Sedan — who now sought to rouse the
indignation of Europe against the tyranny of Louis
XIV. His writings were not permitted to circulate
in France, where all works hostile to the King and
the Jesuits were seized and burnt; but they spread
1 Though Huyghens was a duced to settle there by the
native of Holland, he had long invitation of Colbert,
lived jn Paris, having been ill-
188 HOSPITALITY OF HOLLAXD. CHAP. xi.
over northern Europe, and fanned the general indigna-
tion against Louis XIV. into a still fiercer flame.
Among the celebrated French Protestant divines
who took refuge in Holland were Claude, Basnage,
Martin, Benoit, and Saurin. Academies were expressly
established at Leyden, Rotterdam, and Utrecht, in
which the more distinguished of the banished minis-
ters were appointed to professors' chairs, whilst others
were distributed throughout the principal towns, and
placed in charge of Protestant churches. A fund was
raised by voluntary subscription for the relief of the
fugitives, to which all parties cheerfully and liberally
contributed, — not only Lutherans and Calvinists, but
Jews and even Roman Catholics.
The public as well as the private hospitality of
Holland towards the fugitives was indeed splendid.
The magistrates of Amsterdam not only freely con-
ferred on them the rights of citizenship, with liberty
to exercise their respective callings, but granted them
exemption from local taxes for three years. The
States of Holland and the province of Friesland
granted them similar privileges, with an exemption
from all imposts for a period of twelve years. Every
encouragement was given to the immigration. There
was not a town but was ready to welcome and help
the destitute foreigners. The people received them
into their houses as guests; and when the private
dwellings were rilled, public establishments were
opened for their accommodation. Yet this was not
enough. The Dutch, hearing of the sufferings of the
poor exiles in Switzerland, sent invitations to them
to come into Holland, where they held out that there
was room enough for all.
The result was an immense increase of the emigra-
tion from France into Holland, of men of all ranks
— artizans, cloth-makers, silk-weavers, glass-makers,
printers, and manufacturers. They were distributed,
on their arrival, throughout the various towns and
cities, where they settled down to pursue their re-
CHAP. XI. WILLIAM PRINCE OF ORANGE. 189
spective callings ; and in the course of a short time they
more than repaid, by the exercise of their industry
and their skill, the hospitality of their benefactors.
Another important feature of the immigration into
Holland remains to be mentioned. This was the
influx of a large number of the best sailors of France,
from the coasts of Guienne, Saintonge, La Rochelle,
Poitou, and Normandy, together with a still larger
number of veteran officers and soldiers of the French
army. This accession of refugees had the effect of
greatly adding to the strength both of the Dutch
navy and army; and, as we shall hereafter find, it
exercised an important influence on the political
history both of Holland and England.
Louis XIV. endeavoured to check the emigration
of his subjects into Holland, as he had tried to stop
their flight into Switzerland and England, but in vain.
His envoy expostulated against their reception by the
States; and the States reiterated their proclamations
of privileges to the refugees. The people began to fear
that Louis would declare war against Holland ; though
the Prince of Orange did not shrink from an encounter
with the French king.
William, Prince of Orange and Stadtholder of
Holland, hated France as his forefathers had hated
Spain. Under an appearance of physical weakness
and phlegmatic indifference he concealed an ardent
mind and an indomitable will. He was cool and
taciturn, yet full of courage and even daring. He
was one of those rare men who never knew despair.
When the great French army of 100,000 men, under
Conde and Turenne, swept over Flanders in 1672,
capturing city after city, and approached Amsterdam,
the inhabitants became filled with dread. De Witt
proposed submission ; but William, then only twenty-
two years of age, urged resistance, and his view was
supported by the people. He declared that he would
die in the last ditch rather than see the ruin of his
country ; and, true to his word, he ordered the dykes
loo WILLIAM in. AND LOUIS xiv. CHAK xi.
to be cut and the country laid under water. The
independence of Holland was saved, but at a frightful
cost ; and William never forgot, perhaps never for-
gave, the injury which Louis XIV. had thus caused
him to inflict upon Holland.
William had another and more personal cause of
quarrel with Louis. The Prince took his title from
the small but independent principality of Orange,
situated in the south-east of France, a little to the
north of Avignon. Though Orange was a fief of the
Imperial and not of the French crown, Louis, disre-
garding public law, overran it, dismantled the forti-
fications of the principal town, and subjected the
Protestants of the district to the same cruelties which
he had practised upon his own subjects of the same
faith. On being informed of these outrages, William
declared aloud at his table that the Most Christian
King " should be made to know one day what it was
to offend a Prince of Orange." Louis' ambassador
at the Hague having questioned the Prince as to the
meaning of the words, the latter positively refused
either to retract or explain them.
It may not be unimportant to remark that William
was, like the other princes of his race, an enthusiastic
Protestant. The history of his family was identified
with the rise and progress of the new views, as well
as with the emancipation of the United Provinces
from the yoke of Spain and the Inquisition. His
great-grandsire had fallen a victim to the dagger of
Gerard, the agent of the Jesuits, and expired in the
arms of his wife, the daughter of Admiral Coligny.
Thus, the best Huguenot blood flowed in the veins of
the young Prince of Orange ; and his sympathies
were wholly on the side of the fugitives who sought
the asylum of Holland against the cruelty of their
persecutors.
At the same time, William was doubly related to
the English royal family. His mother was the
daughter of Charles I., and his wife was the daughter
CHAP. xi. FREE ASYLUM IN ENGLAND. 191
of James II., reigning king of England. James
being then without male issue, the Princess of Orange
was the heiress-presumptive to the British throne.
Though William may have been ambitious, he was
cautious and sagacious, and probably had not the
remotest idea of anticipating the succession of his
wife by the overthrow of the government of his
father-in-law, but for the circumstances about to be
summarily described, and which issued in the Revo-
lution of 1688.
Although the later Stuart kings, who were Roman
Catholics at heart, hated Protestantism, they never-
theless felt themselves under the necessity of continu-
ing the policy initiated by Queen Elizabeth, of giving
a free asylum in England to the persecuted Huguenots.
In 1681, Charles II. was constrained by public opinion
to sanction a bill granting large privileges to such of
the refugees as should land on our shores. They were
to have free letters-patent granted them ; and on their
arrival at any of the out-ports, their baggage and
stock-in-trade — when they had any — were to be
landed duty free. But the greater number arrived
destitute. For example, a newspaper of the day thus
announced the landing of a body of the refugees at
Plymouth : " Plymouth, 6th September, 1681.— An
open boat arrived here yesterday, in which were forty
or fifty Protestants who resided outside La Rochelle.
Four other boats left with this, one of which is said to
have put into Dartmouth, but it is not yet known
what became of the other three."
Large numbers of the fugitives continued to land
at all the southern ports — at Dover, at Rye, at
Southampton, at Dartmouth, and at Plymouth ; and,
wherever they landed, they received a cordial wel-
come. Many were pastors, who came ashore hunger-
ing and in rags, lamenting the flocks, and some the
wives and children, which they had left behind them
in France. The people crowded round the venerable
sufferers with indignant and pitying hearts. They
19f LANDING OP HEFUGKES. CHAP. tt.
received them into their dwellings, and hospitably
relieved their wants. Very soon the flocks followed
in the wake of their pastors. These landings con-
tinued for many years, during which the refugees
crowded all the southern ports. The local clergy
led and directed the hospitality of the inhabitants,
usually placing the parish church at the disposal of
the exiles during a part of each Sunday, until they
could be provided with accommodation of their own. l
The sight of so much distress borne so patiently
and uncomplainingly, deeply stirred the heart of the
nation ; and every effort was made to succour and
help the poor refugees for conscience' sake. Public
collections were made in the churches. A fund was
raised for the relief of the most necessitous, and for
enabling the foreigners to proceed inland to places
where they could pursue their industry. Many
were thus forwarded from the sea-coast to London,
Canterbury, Norwich, and other places, where they
eventually formed prosperous settlements, and laid
the foundations of important branches of industry.
James II. succeeded to the British throne at the
death of his brother Charles II. on the 6th of January,
1685, — the year in which the Edict of Nantes was re-
1 At Rye, the refugees were innocent people, such as serve
granted the use of the parish God constantly and uniformly,
church from eight to ten in the according to the usage and
morning, and from twelve to two custom of the Church of Eng-
in the afternoon, the appropria- land. And further, that we be-
tion being duly confirmed by the lieve them to be falsely aspersed
Council of State. Reports having for Papists and disaffected per-
been spread abroad, that the fugi- sons, no such thing appearing
tives were persons of bad char- unto us by the conversations of
acter, disaffected, and Papists in any of them. This we do freely
disguise, the vicar and principal and truly certifie, for and of
inhabitants of Rye drew up and them. In witness whereof, we
published the following testi- have hereunto set our hands,
monial in their behalf :— the 18th day of April, 1682.
" These are to certifie to all Wm. Williams, vicar ; Thos.
whom it may concern, that the Tournay," etc. etc. — State Pa-
French Protestants that are pen, Domestic Calendar, 1682,
settled inhabitants of this town No. 65.
of Rye, are a sober, harmless,
CHAP. XI. JAMES TL AND HIS FAITH. 193
voked. Charles and James were both Roman Catho-
lics,— Charles when he was not a scoffer, James always.
The latter had long been a friend of the Jesuits, in
disguise ; but no sooner did he become king, than he
threw off the mask, and exhibited himself in his true
character. James was not a man to gather wisdom
from experience. During the exile of his family, he
had leamt nothing and forgotten nothing; and it
shortly became clear to the English nation that he
was bent on pursuing almost the identical course
which had cost his father his crown and his head.
If there was one feeling that characterised the
English people about this time, more than another, it
was their aversion to Popery, — not merely Popery as a
religion, but as a policy. It was felt to be contrary to
the whole spirit, character, and tendency of the nation.
Popery had so repeatedly exhibited itself as a perse-
cuting policy, that not only the religious but the non-
religious, — not only the intelligent few, but the illiterate
many, — regarded it with feelings of deep aversion.
Great, therefore, was the public indignation when it
became known that one of the first acts of James, on
his accession to the throne, was to order the public
celebration of the Mass at Westminster, after an inter-
val of more than a century. The King dismissed from
about his person clergymen of the English Church,
and introduced well-known Jesuits in their stead. He
degraded several of the bishops, though he did not yet
venture openly to persecute them. But he showed his
temper and his tendency, by actively reviving the
persecutions of the Scotch Presbyterians, whom he
pursued with a cruelty only equalled by Louis XIV.
in his dealings with the Huguenots.1
James II. was but the too ready learner of the lessons
1 In Scotland, whoever was de- says that the Scotch Act of Par-
tected preaching in a conventicle liament (James VII., 8th May,
or attending one. was punishable 1685) enacting these penalties
nith death and the confiscation was passed at the special instance
of all his property. Macaulay of the King.
13
194 JAMES II. A PERSECUTOR. CHAP. xi.
of despotism taught him by Louis XIV., whose pen-
sioner he was, and whose ultimate victim he proved to
be. The two men indeed resembled each other in many
respects, and their actions ran in almost parallel lines ;
though those who concede to Louis the title of " Great,"
will probably object that the Engfish king was merely
the ape of the French one. They were both dissolute,
and both bigots, vibrating alternately between their
mistresses and their confessors. What La Yalliere,
Montespan, and Maintenon were to Louis XIV., Arabella
Churchill and Catherine Sedley were to James II. The
principal difference between them in this respect was,
that Louis sinned with comely mistresses, and James
with ugly ones. Louis sought absolution from Pere
la Chaise, and James from Father Petre; and when
penance had to be done, both laid it alike upon their
Protestant subjects, — Louis increasing the pressure of
persecution on the Huguenots, and James upon the
Puritans and Covenanters. Both employed military
missionaries in carrying out their designs of conver-
sion; the agents of Louis being the "dragons" of
Noailles, those of James being the dragoons of Claver-
house. Both were despisers of constitutional power, and
sought to centre the government in themselves. But
while Louis succeeded in crushing the Huguenots,
James ignominiously failed in crushing the Puritans.
Louis, it is true, brought France to the verge of ruin,
and paved the way for the French Revolution of 1792;
whilst, happily for England, the designs of James
were summarily thwarted by the English Revolution of
1688, and the ruin of his kingdom was thus averted.
The designs of James upon the consciences of his
people, were not long in developing themselves. The
persecution of the Scotch Covenanters was carried on
with increased virulence, until resistance almost dis-
appeared ; and then he turned his attention to the
English Puritans. Baxter, Howe, Bunyan, and hun-
dreds of nonconformist ministers, were thrown into
gaol ; but there were as yet no hangings nor shootings
CH A P. xi. JAMES II. AND THE HUG UENOTS. 195
of them, as there had been in Scotland. To strengthen
his power, and enable him to adopt more decisive
measures, James next took steps to augment the stand-
ing army, — a measure which exposed him to increased
public odium. Though contrary to law, he in many
cases dismissed the Protestant officers of regiments,
and appointed Roman Catholics in their stead. To
render their appointments legal, he proposed to repeal
the Test Act, as well as the Habeas Corpus Act; but
his minister Halifax refusing to concur in this course,
he was dismissed, and Parliament was adjourned.
Immediately before its re-assembling, the news arrived
from France of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes,
and of the horrible cruelties perpetrated on the Hugue-
nots. The intelligence caused a thrill of indignation
to run throughout England ; and very shortly, crowds
of the destitute fugitives landed on the southern coast,
spreading abroad the tale of horror.
Shortly after, there came from France the report of
a speech addressed by the Bishop of Valance to Louis
XIV. in the name of the French clergy. "The pious
sovereign of England," said the orator, " looked to the
Most Christian King, the eldest son of the Church,
for support against a heretical nation." The natural
inference drawn was, that what Louis had done in
France, James was about to imitate in England by
means of his new standing army, commanded by
Roman Catholic officers.
To allay the general alarm which began to prevail,
James pretended to disapprove of the cruelties to
which the Huguenots had been subjected; and, in
deference to public opinion, he granted some relief to
the exiles from his privy purse, inviting his subjects
to imitate his liberality, by making a public collection
for them in the churches throughout the kingdom.
His acts, however, belied his words. At the instiga-
tion of Barillon, he had the book published in Holland
by the banished Haguenot pastor Claude, describing
the sufferings of his brethren, burnt by the hangman
196 REACTIONARY COURSE OF JAMES II. CHAP. xi.
before the Royal Exchange ; and when the public
collection was made in the churches, and £40,000 was
paid into the chamber of London, James gave orders
that none should receive a farthing of relief unless
they first took the sacrament according to the Angli-
can ritual. Many of the exiles who came for help,
when they heard of the terms on which alone it was
to be granted, went away unrelieved, with sad and
sorrowful hearts.
James proceeded steadily in his reactionary course.
He ordered warrants to be drawn in defiance of the
law, authorising priests of the Church of Rome to hold
benefices in the Church of England. A Jesuit was
quartered as chaplain in University College, Oxford ;
and the Roman Catholic rites were there publicly cele-
brated. The deanery of Christ Church was conferred
upon a minister of the Church of Rome, and mass was
duly celebrated there. Roman Catholic chapels and
convents rose all over the country; and Franciscan,
Carmelite, and Benedictine monks, appeared openly, in
their cowls, beads, and conventual gai'bs. The King
made little secret of his intention to destroy the
Protestant Church ; and he lost no time in carrying
out his measures, even in the face of popular tumult
and occasional rioting, — placing his reliance mainly
upon his standing army, which was encamped on
Hounslow Heath. At the same time, Tyrconnel was
sent over to Ireland to root out the Protestant colonies
there. One of his first acts was to cast adrift about
4000 Protestant officers and soldiers, supplanting them
with as many staunch Papists. Those in his confidence
boasted that within a few months there would not be a
man of English race left in the Irish army. The Irish
Protestants, indeed, began to fear another massacre;
and a number of families, principally gentlemen,
artificers, and tradesmen, left Dublin for England in
the course of a few days.
At length resistance began to show itself. The Par-
liaments both of England and Scotland pronounced
CHAP. xi. PRINCE OF ORANGE'S ARMY. 197
against the King's policy, and he was unable to carry
his measures by constitutional methods. He accord-
ingly resolved, like Louis XIV., to rule by the strong
hand, and to govern by royal edict. Such was the
state of affairs, rapidly verging on anarchy and civil
war, when the English nation, sick of the rule of
James II., after a reign of only three years, and
eager for relief, looked abroad for succour ; and, with
almost general consent, they fixed their eyes upon
William, Prince of Orange, as the one man capable of
helping them in their time of need.
The Prince of Orange had meanwhile been diligently
occupied, amongst other things, with the reorganisation
of his army ; and the influx of veteran officers and
soldiers of the French king, banished from France
because of their religion, furnished him with every
facility for the purpose. He proposed to the States
of Holland that they should raise two new regiments,
to be composed entirely of Huguenots ; but the States
were at first unwilling to make such an addition to
their army. They feared the warlike designs of their
young prince, and were mainly intent upon reducing
the heavy imposts that weighed upon the country, occa-
sioned by the recent invasion of Louis XIV., from the
effects of which they were still suffering.
William, fearing lest the veterans whom he so
anxiously desired to retain in his service should de-
part into other lands, then publicly proclaimed that he
would himself pay the expenses of all the Military
Refugees, rather than that they should leave Holland.
On this the States hesitated no longer, but agreed to
pension the French officers until they could be incor-
porated in the Dutch army; and 180,000 florins a year
were voted for the purpose. Companies of French
cadets were also formed and maintained at the expense
of the state. The Huguenot officers and men were
drafted as rapidly as possible into the Dutch army ;
and before long William saw his ranks swelled by
a formidable body of veteran troops, together with a
198 WILLIAM'S ARMY OF VETERANS. CHAP. xi.
large number of officers of fusiliers from Strasburg,
Metz, and Verdun, Whole companies of Huguenot
troops were drafted into each regiment under their
own officers, while the principal fortresses at Breda,
Maestricht, Bergen-op-Zoom, Bois-le-Duc, Zutphen,
Nimuegen, Arnheim, and Utrecht, were used as so
many depots for such officers and soldiers as continued
to take refuge in Holland.
William's plans were so carefully prepared, and he
conducted his proceedings with so much secrecy, that
both James II. and Louis XIV. were kept entirely in
the dark as to his plans and intentions. At length the
Prince was ready to embark his army, and England
was ready to receive him. It forms no part of our
purpose to relate the circumstances connected with the
embarkation of William, his landing in England, and
the revolution which followed, further than to illus-
trate the part which the banished Huguenots played
in that great political transaction. The narrative will
be found in the pages of Macaulay, though that his-
torian passes over with too slight notice the services of
the Huguenots.
Michelet observes with justice : — " The army of
William was strong precisely in that Calvinistic ele-
ment which James repudiated in England — I mean in
our Huguenot soldiers, the brothers of the Puritans. I
am astonished that Macaulay has thought fit to leave
this circumstance in the background. I cannot believe
that great England, with all her glories and her inherit-
ance of liberty, is unwilling nobly to avow the part
which we Frenchmen had in her deliverance. In the
Homeric enumeration which the historian gives of the
followers of William, he reckons up English, Germans,
Dutch, Swedes, Swiss, with the picturesque detail of
their arms, uniforms, and all, down even to the two
hundred negroes with their black faces set off by em-
broidered turbans and white feathers, who followed the
body of English gentry led by the Earl of Macclesfield.
But he did not see our Frenchmen. Apparently the
CHAP. XI. THE HUGUENOT OFFICERS. 199
proscribed Huguenot soldiers who followed William
did not do honour to the Prince by their clothes !
Doubtless many of them wore the dress in which they
had fled from France — and it had become dusty, worn,
and tattered."1
There is indeed little reason to doubt that the
flower of the little army with which William landed at
Torbay, on the 15th of November, 1688, consisted of
Huguenot soldiers, trained under Schomberg, Turenne,
and Conde. The expedition included three entire
regiments of French infantry, numbering 2250 men,
and a complete squadron of French cavalry. These
were nearly all veteran troops, whose valour had been
proved on many a hard-fought field. Many of them
were gentlemen born, who, unable to obtain commis-
sions as officers, were content to serve in the ranks.
The number of French officers was very large in
proportion to the whole force, — 736, besides those in
command of the French regiments, being distributed
through all the battalions. It is, moreover, worthy of
note that William's ablest and most trusted officers
were Huguenots. Schomberg, the refugee marshal of
France, was next in command to the Prince himself;
and such was the confidence which that skilful general
inspired, that the Princess of Orange gave him secret
instructions to assert her rights, and carry out the
enterprise, should her husband fall. William's three
aides-de-camp, De 1'Etang, De la Meloniere, and the
Marquis d'Arzilliers, were French officers, as were also
the chiefs of the engineers and the artillery, Gambon
and Goulon, the latter being one of Vauban's most dis-
tinguished pupils. Fifty -four French gentlemen served
in William's regiment of horse-guards, and thirty-four
in his body-guard. Among the officers of the army of
liberation, distinguished alike by their birth and their
military skill, were the cavalry officers Didier de
Boncourt and Chalant de Remeugnac, colonels ; Danser-
1 MICHELET — Louis -TIF. et la Revocation, pp. 418-19.
200 MARSHAL SCHOMBERG. CHAP, xi
ville, lieutenant-colonel ; and Petit and Picard, majors;
whilst others of equal birth and distinction as soldiers
served in the infantry.1
Marshal Schomberg was descended from the Dukes
ofCleves, whose arms he bore. Several of his ancestors
had held high rank in the French service. One of
them was killed at the battle of Ivry on the side of
Henry IV., and another commanded under Richelieu
at the siege of Rochelle. The marshal, whose mother
was an Englishwoman of the noble house of Dudley,
began his career in the Swedish army in the Thirty
Years' War, after which he entered the service of the
Netherlands, and subsequently that of France. There
he led an active and distinguished career, and rose by
successive steps to the rank of marshal. The great
Conde had the highest opinion of his military capacity,
and compared him to Turenne. He commanded armies
successfully in Flanders, Portugal, and Holland ; but
on the Revocation of the Edict, being unable to con-
form to popery, he felt compelled to resign his military
honours and emoluments, and leave France for ever.
Schomberg first went to Portugal, which was as-
signed to him as his place of exile ; but he shortly
after left that country to take service, with numerous
other French officers, under Frederick William of
Brandenburg. His stay at Berlin was, however, of
short duration ; for, when he heard of the intentions of
William of Orange with respect to England, he at once
determined to join him. Offers of the most tempting
kind were held out by Frederick William to induce him
to remain in Prussia. The Elector proposed to appoint
him governor-general, minister of state, and member
1 Among the captains of horse veur, Rapin (afterwards the his-
were Massole de Montant, Petit, torian), De Cosne-Chavernay,
De Maricourt, De Boncourt, De Danserville, Massole de Montant,'
Fabrice, De Lauray, Baron d'En- Jacques de Baune, Baron de Ave-
tragues, Le Coq de St. Leger, De jan, Nolibois, Belcastel, Jaucourt
Saumaise, De Lacroix, De Dam- de Villarnoue, Lislemaretz, De
pierre; while among the captains Montazier, and the three brothers
of infantry we rind De Saint Sau- De Batz.
CHAP. xi. WILLIA M'S HUG UENOT POLL 0 WERS. 201
of the privy council ; but in vain. Schomberg felt
that the interests of Protestantism, of which William
of Orange was the recognised leader, required him to
forego his own personal interests ; and though nearly
seventy years of age, he quitted the service of Prussia
to enter that of Holland. He was accompanied by a
large number of veteran Huguenot officers, full of
bitter resentment against the monarch who had driven
them forth from France, and who burned to meet their
persecutors in the field and avenge themselves of the
cruel wrongs which they had suffered at their hands.
What the embittered feelings of the French Protes-
tant gentry were, and what was the nature of the
injuries they had suffered because of their religion,
may, however, best be explained by the following nar-
rative of the sufferings and adventures of a Norman
gentleman who succeeded in making his escape fyom
France, — who joined the liberating army of William
of Orange as captain of dragoons, took part in the ex-
pedition to England, served with the English army in
the Irish campaigns, and afterwards settled at Port-
arlington in Ireland, where he died in 1709.
CHAPTER XII.
ADVENTURES OF DUMONT DE BOSTAQUET — IRISH CAM-
PAIGN OF 1689-90.
ISAAC DUMONT DE BOSTAQUET was a Protestant gen-
tleman possessing considerable landed property near
Yerville in Normandy, about eight leagues from
Dieppe. He had been well educated in his youth,
and served with distinction in the French army as
an officer of Norman horse. After leaving the army,
he married, and settled on his paternal estates, where
he lived the life of a retired country gentleman.1
It was about the year 1661, that the first muttering
of the coming storm reached De Bostaquet in his
ancient chateau of La Fontelaye. The Roman Catho-
lics, supported by the King, had begun to pull down
Protestant churches in many districts ; and now it
began to be rumoured abroad that several in Nor-
mandy were to be demolished ; amongst others the
church of Lindeboeuf, in which De Bostaquet and his
family worshipped. He at once set out for Paris, to
endeavour, if possible, to prevent the outrage. He saw
his old commander Turenne, and had interviews with
the King's ministers, but without any satisfactory
result ; for on his return to Normandy he found that
the temple at Lindeboeuf had been demolished during
his absence.
1 The account given in this Waddington, and published at
chapter is mainly drawn from Paris in 1864. The MS. was
the Memoires Inedits de Dumont in the possession of Dr. Vig-
de Bostaquet, Gcntilhomme, Nor- noles, Dean of Ossory, a lineal
mantl, edited by MM. Read and descendant of De Bostaouet.
CHAP. xil. DUMONT DE BOSTAQUET. 203
When De Bostaquet complained to the local au-
thorities of the outrage, he was told that the King
was resolved to render the exercise of the Protestant
worship so difficult that it would be necessary for
all Protestants throughout France to conform them-
selves to the King's religion. This, however, De
Bostaquet was not prepared to do ; and a temporary
place of worship was fitted up in the chateau at La
Fontelaye, where the scattered flock of Lindeboeuf re-
assembled, and the seigneur himself on an emergency
preached, baptized, and performed the other offices
of religion. And thus he led an active and useful life
in the neighbourhood for many years.
But the persecution of the Protestants became in-
creasingly hard to bear. More of their churches were
pulled down, and their worship was becoming all but
proscribed. De Bostaquet began to meditate emigra-
tion into Holland; but he was bound to France by
many ties — of family as well as property. By his
first wife he had a family of six daughters and one
son. Shortly after her death he married a second
time, and a second family of six children was added to
the first. But his second wife also died, leaving him
with a large family to rear and educate ; and, as in-
telligent female help was essential for this purpose, he
was thus induced to marry a third time ; and a third
family, of two sons and three daughters, was added to
the original number.
At last the Edict was revoked, and the dragoons
were let loose on the provinces to compel the conver-
sion of the Protestants. A body of cuirassiers was
sent into Normandy, which had hitherto been exempt
from their visitations. On the intelligence of their ad-
vance reaching De Bostaquet, he summoned a meeting
of the neighbouring Protestant gentry at his house at
La Fontelaye, to consider what was best to be done.
He then declared to them his intention of leaving
France should the King persist in his tyrannical
course. Although all who were present praised his
204 QUARTERING OF TROOPS ON FAMILIES. CHAP. xn.
resolution, none offered to accompany him, — not even
his eldest son, who had been married only a few
months before. When the ladies of the household
were apprised of the resolution he had expressed,
they implored him, with tears in their eyes, not to
leave them ; if he did, they felt themselves lost. His
wife, on the eve of another confinement, joined her
entreaties to those of his children ; and he felt that
under such circumstances, the idea of flight must be
given up.
The intelligence shortly reached La Fontelaye that
the cuirassiers had entered Rouen sword in hand,
under the Marquis de Beaupre' Choiseul; that the
quartering of the troops on the inhabitants was pro-
ducing " conversions " by wholesale ; and that crowds
were running to M. de Marillac, the Intendant, to sign
their abjuration, and thus get rid of the soldiers. De
Bostaquet then resolved to go over to Rouen himself,
and see with his own eyes what was going on there.
He was greatly shocked both by what he saw and
by what he heard. Sorrow sat on all countenances
except those of the dragoons, who paraded the streets
with a truculent air. There was the constant moving
of them from house to house. Wherever they were
quartered, they swore, drank, and hectored, until the
inmates signed their abjuration, when they were with-
drawn for the purpose of being quartered elsewhere.
De Bostaquet was ineffably pained to find that these
measures were generally successful ; that all classes
were making haste to conform ; and that even his
brother-in-law, M. de Lamberville, who had been so
staunch but a few days before, had been carried
along by the stream and abjured.
De Bostaquet hastened from the place, and returned
to La Fontelaye sad at heart. The intelligence which
he brought with him, of the dragonnades at Rouen, occa-
sioned deep concern in the minds of his household ;
but only one feeling pervaded them, — resignation and
steadfastness. De Bostaquet took refuge in the hope
CHAP. xii. TROOPS QUARTERED AT LA FONTELAYE. 205
that, belonging as he did to the noblesse, he would be
spared the quartering of troops in his family. But he
was mistaken. At Rouen, the commandant quartered
thirty horsemen upon Sieur Chauvel, until he and his
lady, to get rid of them, signed their abjuration ; and
an intimation was shortly after made to De Bostaquet,
that unless he and his family abjured, a detachment
of twenty-five dragoons would be quartered in his
chateau. Fearing the effects on his wife, in her then
delicate state of health, as well as desirous of saving
his children from the horrors of such a visitation, he
at once proceeded to Dieppe with his eldest son, and
promised to sign his abjuration after placing himself
for a time under the instruction of the reverend
penitentiary of Notre Dame de Rouen.
No sooner had he put his name to the paper, than
he felt degraded in his own eyes. He felt that he had
attached his signature to a falsehood, for he had no
intention of attending mass or abjuring his religion.
But his neighbours were now abjuring all round.
His intimate friend, the Sieur de Boisse', had a com-
pany of musketeers quartered on him until he signed.
Another neighbour, the Sieur de Montigny, was in
like manner compelled to abjure, — his mother and
four daughters, to avoid the written lie, having pre-
viously escaped into Holland. None were allowed to
go free. Old M. de Grosmdnil, De Bostaquet's father-
in-law, though laid up by gout and scarce able to
hold a pen, was compelled to sign. In anticipation of
the quartering of the dragoons on the family, his wife
had gone into concealment, the children had left the
house, and even the domestics could with difficulty be
induced to remain. The eldest daughter fled through
Picardy into Holland ; the younger daughters took
refuge with their relatives in Rouen; the son also
fled, none knew whither. Madame de Grosme'nil
issued from her concealment to take her place by
her suffering husband's bed, and she too was com-
pelled to sign her abjuration ; but she was so shocked
206 THE FAMIL Y SICfJV THEIR ABJURA Tl ON. CHAP, xil
and grieved by the sin she had committed, that she
shortly after fell ill and died. "All our families,"
says De Bostaquet, "succumbed by turns." A body
of troops next made their appearance at La Fon-
telaye, and required all the members of the household
to sign their abjuration. De Bostaquet 's wife, his
mother — whose grey hairs did not protect her — his
sons, daughters, and domestics, were all required to
sign.
The whole family now began seriously to meditate
Might from France, — De Bostaquet's mother, notwith-
standing her burden of eighty years, being one of the
most eager to escape. Attempts were first made to
send away the girls singly, and several journeys were
made to the nearest port with that object ; but no
ship could be met with, and the sea-coast was found
strictly guarded. De Bostaquet's design having become
known to the commandant at Dieppe, he was privately
warned of the risk he ran of being informed against,
and of having his property confiscated and himself
sent to the galleys. But the ladies of the family
became every day more urgent to flee, declaring that
their consciences would not allow them any longer
hypocritically to conform to a Church which they
detested, and that they were resolved to escape from
their present degradation at all risks.
At length it was arranged that an opportunity
should be taken of escaping during the fetes of Pen-
tecost, when there was to be a grand review of the
peasantry appointed to guard the coast, during which
they would necessarily be withdrawn from their posts
as watchers of the Huguenot fugitives. The family
plans were thus somewhat precipitated, before De
Bostaquet had been enabled to convert his property
into money, and thereby provide himself with the
means of conducting the emigration of so large a
family. It was at first intended that the young
ladies should endeavour to make their escape, their
father accompanying them to the coast to see them
CHAI-. xii. FLIGHT O* THE DESEOSIAQUE'IS. 207
safe on board ship, and then returning to watch over
his wife, who was approaching the time of her confine-
ment.
On the morning of Pentecost Sunday, the whole
family assembled at worship, and besought the blessing
of God on their projected enterprise. After dinner
the party set out. It consisted of De Bostaquet, his
aged mother, several grown daughters, and many
children. The father had intended that his youngest
son should stay behind ; but with tears in his eyes he
implored leave to accompany them. The cavalcade
first proceeded to the village of La Haliere, where
arrangements had been made for their spending the
night, while De Bostaquet proceeded to Saint Aubin
to engage an English vessel lying there to take them
off the coast.
The following night, about ten o'clock, the party
set out from Luneray, accompanied by many friends,
and a large number of fugitives like themselves,
making for the sea-coast. De Bostaquet rode first,
with his sister behind him on a pillion. His son-
in-law, De Renfreville, and his wife, rode another
horse in like manner. De Bostaquet's mother, the
old lady of eighty, was mounted on a quiet pony,
and attended by two peasants. His son and daughter
were also mounted, the latter on a peasant's horse,
which carried the valises. De Renfreville's valet rode
another nag, and was armed with a musketoon. Thus
mounted, and after many adieux, the party set out for
Saint Aubin. On their way thither they were joined
by other relatives — M. de Montcornet, an old officer
in the French army, De Bostaquet's brother-in-law,
and M. de Bequigny, who was accompanied by a
German valet, with another young lady behind him
on a pillion.
" We found before us in the plain," says De Bos-
taquet, "more than three hundred persons — men,
women, and children — all making for the sea-coast,
some for Saint Aubin, and others for Quibervilie.
208 DEPARTURE FOR, THE COAST. CHAP xn.
Nearly tbe whole of these people were peasants, there
being very few of the better class among them ; and
none bore arms but ourselves and the two valets of De
Be'quigny and De Renfreville, who carried musketoons.
The facility with which fugitives had heretofore been
enabled to escape, and the belief that there was no
danger connected with our undertaking, made us
travel without much precaution. The night was
charming, and the moon shone out brightly. The
delicious coolness which succeeded the heat of the
preceding day enabled the poor peasants on foot to
march forward with a lighter step ; and the prospect of
a speed}7 deliverance from their captivity made them
almost run towards the shore with as much joy as
if they had been bound for a wedding-party. * * *
" Those who intended to embark at Quiberville now
left us, while those who were bound for Saint Aubin
proceeded in that direction. As yet we had en-
countered no obstacle. "We passed through Flainville
without any one speaking to us ; and, nattering our-
selves that everything was propitious, we at length
reached the shore. We found the coast-guard station
empty ; no one appeared ; and without fear we alighted
to rest our horses. We seated the ladies on the shingle
by the side of my mother, a tall girl from Caen keep-
ing them company.
" I was disappointed at seeing no signs of the vessel
in which we were to embark. I did not know that
they were waiting for some signal to approach the
land. While I was in this state of anxiety, my son
came to inform me that his aunt had arrived. Her
carriage had not been able to reach the shore, and she
waited for me about a gun-shot off. I went on foot,
accompanied by my son, to find her. She and her
children were bathed in tears at the thought of their
separation. She embraced me tenderly, and the sight
of herself and little ones afflicted me exceedingly. My
daughter from Ribceuf alighted from the carriage to
salute me, as well as Mademoiselle Duval.
CHAP. xii. ATTACKED BY THE COAST-GUARD. 209
" I had been with them for a very little while, when
I perceived that there was a general movement down by
the margin of the sea, where I had left my party. I
asked what it was, and fearing lest the vessel might
appear too far off, I proposed to have the carriage
brought nearer to the shore ; but I was not left long
in uncertainty, A peasant called out to me, that there
was a great disturbance going forward ; and soon after,
I heard the sound of drums beating, followed by a
discharge of musketry. It immediately occurred to
me that it must be the coast-guard returned to occupy
their post, who had fallen on our party ; and I began
to fear that we were irretrievably lost. I was on foot
alone, with my little son, near the carriage. I did not
see two horsemen, who were coming down upon us at
full speed, but I heard voices crying with all their
might, ' Help ! help ! ' I found myself in a strange state
of embarrassment, without means of defence, when my
lacquey, who was holding my horses on the beach, ran
towards me with my arms.
" I had only time to throw myself on my horse and
call out to my sister-in-law in the carriage, to turn
back quickly, when I hastened, pistol in hand, to the
place whence the screams proceeded. Scarcely was I
clear of the carriage, when a horseman shouted, 'Kill !
kill !' I answered, ' Fire, rascal!' At the same moment
he fired his pistol full at me, so near that the discharge
flashed along my left cheek and set fire to my peruke,
but without wounding me. I was still so near the
carnage, that both the coachmen and lacquey saw
my hair in a blaze. I took aim with my pistol at
the stomach of the scoundrel, but, happily for him, it
missed fire, although I had primed it afresh on leaving
Luneray. The horseman at once turned tail, accom-
panied by his comrade. I then took my other pistol,
and followed the two at the trot, when one called out
to the other, ' Fire ! fire ! ' The one that had a musket
proceeded to take aim at me, and as it was nearly as
light as day, and I was only two or three horselengths
14
210 THE COAST-GUARD DEFEATED. CHAP. xil.
from him, he fired and hit me in the left arm, with
which I was holding my bridle. I moved my arm
quickly, to ascertain whether it was broken, and put-
ting spurs to my horse, I gained the crupper of the
man who had first fired at me, who was now on my
left, and as he bent over his horse's neck, I discharged
my pistol full into his haunch. The two horsemen at
once disappeared and fled.
" I now heard the voice of De Bequigny, who, embar-
rassed by his assailants on foot, was furiously defending
himself; and, without losing time in pursuing my
fugitives, I ran up to him sword in hand, encountering
on the way my son-in-law, who was coming towards
me. I asked him whither he was going; and he said that
he was running in search of the horses which his valet
had taken away. I told him it was in vain, and that
he was flying as fast as his legs could carry him, for I
had caught sight of him passing as I mounted my horse.
But I had no time to reason with him. In a moment
I had joined De Bequigny, who had with him only
old Montcornet, my wife's uncle; but before a few
minutes had passep, we had scattered the canaille, and
found ourselves masters of the field. De Be*quigny
informed me that his horse was wounded, and that he
could do no more ; and I told him that I was wounded
in the arm, but that it was necessary, without loss of
time, to ascertain what had become of the poor women.
" We found them at the place where we had left
them, but abandoned by everybody; the attendants
and the rest of the troop having run away along the
coast, under the cliffs. My mother, who was extremely
deaf through age, had not heard the firing, and did not
know what to make of the disturbance, thinking only
of the vessel, which had not yet made its appearance.
My sister, greatly alarmed, on my reproaching her
with not having quietly followed the others, answered
that my mother was unable to walk, being too much
burdened by her dress ; for, fearing the coldness of the
night, she had clothed herself heavily. M. de Bequigny
CHAP. xii. ALARMING SITUATION. 211
then suggested that it might yet be possible to rally
some of the men of our troop, and thereby rescue the
ladies from their peril. Without loss of time I ran
along the beach for some distance, supposing that some
of the men might have hidden under the cliffs through
fear. But my labour was useless: I saw only some
girls, who fled away weeping. Considering that my
presence would be more useful to our poor women, I
rejoined them at the gallop. M. de B^quigny, on his
part, had returned from the direction of the coast-
guard station, to ascertain whether there were any
persons lurking there, for we entertained no doubt
that it was the coast-guard that had attacked us ; and
the two horsemen with whom I had the affair con-
firmed me in this impression, for I knew that such
men were appointed to patrol the coasts, and visit the
posts all the night through. On coming up to me,
Bequigny said he feared we were lost ; that the rascals
had rallied to the number of about forty, and were
preparing for another attack.
" We had no balls remaining with which to reload
our pistols. Loss of blood already made me feel very
faint. De Be'quigny's horse had been wounded in the
shoulder by a musket-shot, and had now only three
legs to stand upon. In this extremity, and not knowing
what to do to save the women and children, I begged
him to set my mother behind me on horseback. He
tried, but she was too heavy, and he set her down
again. M. de Montcornet was the only other man we
had with us, but he was useless. He was seventy-
two, and the little nag he rode could not be of much
service. De Bequigny 's valet had run away, after
having in the skirmish fired his musketoon and
wounded a coast-guardsman in the shoulder, of which
the man died. The tide, which began to rise, deterred
me from leading the women and children under the
cliffs; besides, I was uncertain of the route in that
direction. My mother and sister conjured me to fly
instantly, because, if I was captured, my ruin was
212 DE BOSTAQUET TAKES TO FLIGHT. CHAP. xn.
certain, whilst the worst that could happen to them
would be, confinement in a convent.
" In this dire extremity, my heart was torn by a
thousand conflicting emotions, and I was overwhelmed
with despair at being unable to rescue those so dear to
me from the perils which beset them. I knew not what
course to take. While in this state of irresolution, I
felt myself becoming faint through loss of blood.
Taking out my handkerchief, I asked my sister to tie
it round my arm, which was still bleeding ; but want-
ing the nerve to do so, as well as not being sufficiently
tall to reach me on horseback, I addressed myself to
the young lady from Caen, who was with them, and
whom they called La Rosiere. She was tall, and by
the light of the moon she looked a handsome girl.
She had great reluctance to approach me in the state
in which I was ; but at last, after entreating her
earnestly, she did me the service which I required,
and the further flow of blood was stopped.
" After resisting for some time the entreaties of my
mother and sister to leave them and fly for my life —
but seeing that my staying longer with them was use-
less, and that De Montcornet and De Bdquigny also
urged me to fly — I felt that at length I must yield to
my fate, and leave them in the hands of Providence.
My sister, who feared being robbed by the coast-guard
on their return, gave me her twenty louis d'or to keep,
and praying Heaven to preserve me, they forced me to
leave them and take to flight, which I did with the
greatest grief that I had ever experienced in the whole
course of my life." l
De Bostaquet and his friend De Bdquigny first fled
along the shore, but the shingle greatly hindered them.
On their way they fell in first with De Bdquigny's
valet, who had fled with the horses, and shortly after
with Judith-Julie, Dumont's little daughter, accom-
panied by a peasant and his wife. She was lifted up
M&nwirea Intdits, pp. 121-5.
CHAP. XII. FINDS TEMPORARY SHELTER. 213
and placed in front of the valet, and they rode on
Leaving the sea-shore by a road which led from the
beach inland, Dumont preceded them, his drawn
sword in his hand. They had not gone far when they
were met by six horsemen, who halted and seemed
uncertain whether to attack or not; but observing
Dumont in an attitude of defence, they retired, and
the fugitives fled, as fast as Bequigny's wounded horse
would allow them, to Luneray, to the house from
which they had set out on the previous night. There
Dumont left his daughter, and again De Bequigny and
he rode out into the night. As day broke, they reached
St. Laurent. They went direct to the house of a
Huguenot surgeon, who removed Dumont's bloody
shirt, probed the wound to his extreme agony, but
could not find the ball, — the surgeon concluding that it '
was firmly lodged between the two bones of the fore-
arm. The place was too unsafe for Dumont to remain ;
and though suffering much and greatly needing rest, he
set out again, and made for his family mansion at La
Fontelaye. But he did not dare to enter the house.
Alighting at the door of one of his tenants named
Malherbe, devoted to his interest, he despatched him
with a message to Madame de Bostaquet, who at
once hastened to her husband's side. Her agony of
grief may be imagined on seeing him, pale and suffer-
ing, his clothes covered with blood, and his bandaged
arm in a sling. Giving her hasty instructions as to what
she was to do in his absence — amongst other things
with respect to the sale of his property and everything
that could be converted into money — and after much
weeping and taking many tender embraces of his wife
and daughters, committing them to the care of God, he
mounted again and fled northwards for liberty and
life.
De Bostaquet proceeds in his narrative to give a
graphic account of his flight across Normandy,
Picardy, Artois, and Flanders, into Holland, in the
course of which he traversed wor^s, swam rivers, and
214 II I,, III I MO J'K \J(DY. fJIAJ Ctt
hairlu-eadth eSfiapM Knowing (lie country
ly, and having many fru-nds and relative* in
Normandy and I'ieardy Koman < at l.'.iir- M V«U M
Protextants, he often contrived t • •,-, • .-. ni^ht1*
helt,-,, a ehan;-e of ||f,. • ;,„, ,oln<'titl|c :, • • : • _• .
..I l,..t .-; . loi hiinwlf aii'l hi;-; IVi. M.I Saint R\>y, who
accompanied him They lodged tin- fit t r.r/ht ;,'
VnrvMiiiM-H witli a kiri'inan on whom h<- <-.<>u\<] rely: for
M. de Verdun, May* De Bcwtaquet, "WM A good man,
though i, papbt and even a bigot." A surgeon wa»
.• nt Inr lo .!,,• tl,,. fi|..iti\« ;-, arm, whit-h |,a.| \,< .-,,,,,<•
inewauingly painful . The nurfleoo probed the \\- « . . 1 1 1 . 1 .
but *till no t>all oould be found. Mounting again, the
two rod*- all 'lay, and by nightfall !«•;,
fffH^^fg for a vkilled army turgeon, the wound was
|,r..bi-.| a;-ain l.iit with no [,c(t., . -. • || ,, the
ruiuour of the attair At Saint Aubin, greatly magnified,
n-m-lii-.l !»<• Bo:,l,a<|urt, ami lin-lin;- that his only .at. ty
lay in flight, he gtarted auain with hU friend and to»k
the route for Holland through Heard?, They rode
onwards to Belozane, then to Neufchitel, where Saint-
i parted, returning home.
Th< fugitive Mifiiiid Fouearmont alone by moon-
light in great pain, hi* arm being exceedingly swollen
and much inflamed, fib at once tent for a surgeon,
who iiivwM-ii ih. wound, hut r.-ar.-.i gangrene. Next
morning the inflammation had subnided, and he set
">n, again, reaching the outskirts of •:<•!>
!..• |,us:.i-'l on ihr left, lint! arriving a(, ]'„„<. ,), |<«-niy.
h. ||,..« r,o,-,,| (hi- Sommc. Mr WHS now Mi IVa,,|y.
Pressing onward, he reached Pro vj lie, where he WM
kindlv entertained for the night by a Prote^
•- • M dc Moiithtic Tli'' cam an<i inHamtnalion m
In aim ;.lill iliciX'HMing, llu n \Vf
to, Thr wound, \vhi-n -'XpOied, Wa» foiind hlacK.
sw»ll< n. .Mud angry-loolsing. The surgeon sounded
agttin, lound n<> i.ail, and concluded |,y n'OOtQttietl'i
IM il. , t i< I ami low MI. I, The patient n maincd with
hi In. M<| (or i\\.. da\s. diirin;-; which M. Mont..
CHAP. m. JUt&irES rr HOLLA*!*, sis
arrived, for the purpose of accompanying him in his
flight into Holland.
Next day, to De Bostaquet's great surprise, the ball,
for which the surgeons had so often been searching in
vain, was found in the finger of one of his gloves, into
which it had dropped. He was now comparatively
relieved; and, unwilling to trespass longer on the kind-
ness of his friends, after a few more days' rest be again
took the road with his aged relative. They travelled
by Le Quesnel and Doulkns, then along the great
high road of Hesdin and through the woods of the
Abbey of Sercan ; next striking the Arras road (where
they were threatened with an attack by foot-pads),
they arrived at La Gnorgues; and crossing the frontier,
they at last, after many adventures and perils, arrived
in safety at Courtrai, where they began to breathe
freely. But Dnmont did not consider himself safe
until he had reached Ghent; for Courtrai was still
under the dominion of Spain. So again pushing on
the fugitives rested not until they arrived at Ghent,
late at night, where the two way-worn travellers at
length slept soundly. Next day, Montoornet, who
though seventy-two years old, had stood the fatigues
of the journey surprisingly well, proceeded to join his
son, then lying with many other refugee officers in
garrison at Maastricht ; while De Bostaquet went for-
ward into Holland to join the fugitives who were now
flocking thither in great numbers from all parts of
France.
Such is a rapid outline of the escape of Dumont de
aquet into the great Protestant asylum of the
north. His joy, however, was mingled with grief, for
he had left his wife and family behind him in France,
under the heel of the persecutor. After many painful
rumours of the severe punishments to which his chil-
dren had been subject ed, he was at length joined by
his wife, his son, and one of his daughters, who sue-
led in escaping by sea. The ladies -taken prisoners
by the coast-guard at St. Aubin, besides being heavily
216 ENTEPS THE SERVICE OF WILLIAM III. CHAP xn.
fined, were condemned to be confined in convents'
some for several years each, and others for life. The
gentlemen and men-servants who accompanied them,
were condemned to the galleys for life, and their pro-
perty and goods were declared forfeited to the King.
This completed the ruin of Dumont de Bostaquet, so
far as worldly wealth was concerned ; for by the law
of Louis XIV., the property not only of all fugitives,
but of all who abetted fugitives in their attempt to
escape, was declared confiscated, — while they were
themselves liable, if caught, to suffer the penalty of
death.
De Bostaquet was hospitably received by the Prince
of Orange, and, on his application for employment, he
was appointed to the same rank in the Dutch army
that he had before held in that of Louis XIV. When
the expedition to England was decided upon, such of
the refugee officers as were disposed to join William
were invited to send in their names ; and De Bostaquet
at once volunteered, with numbers more. Fifty of the
French officers were selected for the purpose of being
incorporated in the two dragoon regiments, red and
blue ; and De Bostaquet was appointed to a captaincy
in the former regiment, of which De Louvigny was
the colonel.
The fleet of William had already been assembled at
Maasluis, and with the troops on board, shortly spread
its sails for England. But the expedition, consisting
of about five hundred sail, had scarcely left the Dutch
shores before it was dispersed by a storm, which raged
for three days. One ship, containing two companies
of French infantry, commanded by Captains de Chau-
vernay and Rapin-Thoras (afterwards the historian),
was driven towards the coast of Norway. Those on
board gave themselves up for lost ; but the storm abat-
ing, the course of the vessel was altered, and she after-
wards reached the Maas in safety. Very few ships
were missing when the expedition re-assembled; but
among the lost was one containing four companies of a
CHAP. XII. WILLIAM'S FLEET SAILS FOR ENGLAND. 217
Holstein regiment and some sixty French officers and
volunteers. When De Bostaquet's ship arrived in the
Maas, it was found that many of the troop horses had
been killed in the storm, or were so maimed as to be
rendered unfit for service. After a few days' indefati-
gable labour, however, all damages were made good,
the fleet was refitted anew, and again put to sea, — this
time with better prospects of success.
"Next day," says De Bostaquet, in his Memoirs,
" we saw the coasts of France and England stretching
before us on either side. I confess that I did not look
upon my ungrateful country without deep emotion,
as I thought of the many ties of affection which still
bound me to it, — of my children, and the dear relatives
I had left behind : but as our fleet might even now be
working out their deliverance, and as England was
drawing nearer, I felt that one must cast such thoughts
aside, and trust that God would yet put it into the
heart of our Hero to help our poor country under the
oppressions beneath which she was groaning. The
fleet was regarded by the people on the opposite shores
of the Channel with very different emotions. France
trembled; while England, seeing her deliverer ap-
proaching, leapt with joy. It seemed as if the Prince
took a pleasure in alarming France, whose coast he
long kept in sight. But at length, leaving it behind,
we made for the opposite shore, and all day long
we held along the English coast, sailing towards the
west. Night hid the land from further view, and next
morning not a trace of it was to be seen. As the wind
held good, we thought that by this time we must have
passed out of the English Channel, though we knew
not. whither we were bound. Many of our soldiers
from Poitou hoped that we might effect a landing
there. But at three in the afternoon we again caught
sight of the English land on our right, and found that
we were still holding the same course. M. de Bethen-
cour, who knew the coast, assured us that we were
bound for Plymouth; and it seemed to me that such
218 LAXDING AT TORS AY. CHAP. xit.
was the Prince's design. But the wind having shifted,
we were astonished to see our vanguard put about,
and sail as if right down upon us. Nothing could be
more beautiful than the evolution of the immense
flotilla which now took place under a glorious sky.
The main body of the fleet and the rear-guard lay to,
in order to allow the Prince's division to pass through
them, on which every ship in its turn prepared to
tack. There were no longer any doubts as to where we
were to land. We distinctly saw the people along the
heights watching, and doubtless admiring, the magni-
ficent spectacle ; but there appeared to be no signs of
alarm at sight of the multitude of ships about to enter
their beautiful bay."
De Bostaquet proceeds to describe the landing at
Torbay, and the march of the little army inland, through
mud and mire, under heavy rain and along villainous
roads, until they entered Exeter amidst the acclama-
tions of the .people. De Bostaquet found that many of
his exiled countrymen had already settled at Exeter,
where they had a church and minister of their own.
Among others, he met with a French tailor from Lintot
in Normandy, who had become established in business,
besides other refugees from Dieppe and the adjoining
country, who were settled and doing well. De Bosta-
quet expressed himself much gratified with his short
stay in Exeter, which he praised for its wealth, its
commerce, its manufactures, and the hospitality of its
inhabitants.
After resting six or seven days at Exeter, William
and his army marched upon London through Salisbury,
being daily joined by fresh adherents, — gentry, officers,
and soldiers. The army of James made no effort at
resistance, but steadily retii'ed; the only show of a
stand being made at Reading, where five hundred of
the King's horse, doubtless fighting without heart, were
put to flight by a hundred and fifty of William's
dragoons, led by the Huguenot Colonel Marouit. Not
another shot was fired before William arrived in
CHAP. xil. ARRIVAL IN LONDON. 219
London, where he was welcomed as the nation's deli-
verer. By this time James was making arrangements
for flight, together with his Jesuits. He might easily
have been captured and made a martyr of; but the
mistake made with Charles I. was not repeated in his
case, and James, having got on board a smack in the
Thames, was allowed to slink ignominiously out of the
kingdom.
The Huguenot officers and soldiers of William's army
found many of their exiled countrymen already settled
in London. Soho in the west, and Spitalfields in the
east, were almost entirely French quarters. Numbers
of new churches were about this time opened for the
accommodation of the immigrants, in which the service
was conducted in French by their own ministers, some
of the most eminent of whom had taken refuge in
England. The exiles formed communities by them-
selves ; they were for the most part organised in congre-
gations ; and a common cause and common sufferings
usually made them soon acquainted with each other.
De Bostaquet and his compatriots, therefore, did not
find themselves so much strangers in London as they
expected to be ; for they were daily encountering
friends and brothers in misfortune.
A distinguished little circle of exiles had by this
time been formed at Greenwich, of which the aged
Marquis de Ruvigny formed the centre. That noble-
man had for many years been one of the most trusted
servants of the French Government. He held various
high offices in his own country, — being a general in the
French army and a councillor of state ; and he had on
more than one occasion represented France as envoy
at the English court. But he was a Protestant, and
was therefore precluded from holding public office sub-
sequent to the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. "Had
the Marquis," says Macaulay, " chosen to remain in his
native country, he and his household would have been
permitted to worship God privately according to their
own forms. But Ruvigny rejected all offers, cast in
220 THE MARQUIS DE RUVIGNY. CHAP. xn.
his lot with his brethren, and, at upwards of eighty
years of age, quitted Versailles, where he might still
have been a favourite, for a modest dwelling at Green-
wich. That dwelling was, during the last months of
his life, the resort of all that was most distinguished
among his fellow-exiles. His abilities, his experience,
and his munificent kindness, made him the undisputed
chief of the refugees. He was at the same time half
an Englishman; for his sister had been Countess of
Southampton, and he was uncle of Lady Russell. He
was long past the time of action. But his two sons,
both men of eminent courage, devoted their swords to
the service of William." 1
A French church had been founded by the Marquis
of Ruvigny at Greenwich, in 1686,2 of which M. Severin,
an old and valued friend of De Bostaquet and his wife,
was appointed pastor ; so that our Huguenot officer at
once found himself at home. He was cordially received
by the aged Marquis, who encouraged him to bring
over his family from Holland and settle them in the
place. This De Bostaquet did accordingly, and during
his brief residence at Greenwich, his wife presented
him with another son, his nineteenth child, to which
the Marquis de Ruvigny stood godfather, and after
whom he was named. Only a month later, the good
old Marquis died, and De Bostaquet, with many of the
more illustrious exiles, followed his remains to his
tomb in the church of the Savoy, in the Strand, where
he was buried.
Meanwhile, William had been occupied in consoli-
dating his government, and reducing the disaffected
parts of the kingdom to obedience. With Scotland
this was comparatively easy ; but with Ireland the
1 MACAULAY — History of Eng- behind the shop of Mr. Harding,
land, vol. iii. ch. 14. oilman. The Commandments were
- The French chapel at Green- written up in French on each side
wich was recently in existence, of the pulpit, until the year 1814,
and used as a Baptist chapel. It when they were effaced,
was situated in London Street,
CHAP. xii. JAMES II. LANDS IN IRELAND. 221
case was very different. The Irish Roman Catholics
remained loyal to James, because of his religion ; and
when he landed at Kinsale, in March 1689, he saw
nearly the whole country at his feet. Only the little
Presbyterian colony established in Ulster made any
show of resistance. James had arrived in Ireland
with substantial help in arms and money obtained
from the French king ; and before many weeks had
elapsed, 40,000 Irish stood in arms to support his
authority. The forces of William in Ireland were few
in number and bad in quality, consisting for the most
part of raw levies of young men taken suddenly from
the plough. They were therefore altogether unequal
to cope with the forces of James, Tyrconnel, and the
French Marshal de Rosen ; and but for vigorous mea-
sures on the part of William and his government, it was
clear that Ireland would be lost to the English crown.
The best troops of William had by this time been
either sent abroad or disbanded. The English and
Dutch veteran regiments had for the most part been
despatched to Flanders to resist the French armies of
Louis, who threatened a diversion in favour of James
in that quarter; while, in deference to the jealousy
which the English people naturally entertained against
the maintenance amongst them of a standing army
— especially an army of foreigners — the Huguenot
regiments had beer disbanded, almost immediately
after the abdication of James and his flight into
France. So soon, however, as the news of James's
landing in Ireland reached London, measures were
taken for their re-embodiment; and four excellent
regiments were at once raised — one of cavalry and
three of infantry. The cavalry regiment was raised
by Schomberg, who was its colonel; and it was en-
tirely composed of French gentlemen — officers and
privates. The infantry regiments were raised with
the help of the aged Marquis de Ruvigny ; and at his
death, in July 1689, the enterprise was zealously pro-
secuted by his two sons — Henry, the second Marquis,
222 THE HUGUENOT REGIMENTS. CHAP. xn.
and Pierre de Ruvigny, afterwards better known as
La Caillemotte. These regiments were respectively
commanded by La Caillemotte, Cambon, and La
Meloniere.
The French regiments were hastily depatched to
join the little army of about 10,000 men sent into the
north of Ireland, to assist the Protestants in arms there,
during the same month in which they were raised. Their
first operation was conducted against the town of Car-
rickfergus, which fell after a siege of a week, but not
without loss, — for the Huguenot regiments who led the
assault suffered heavily, the Marquis de Venours and
numerous other officers being amongst the killed.
Shortly after, the Huguenot regiment of cavalry
arrived from England ; and, joined by three regiments of
Enniskilleners, the army marched southward. De Bos-
taquet held his former rank of captain in Schomberg's
horse ; and he has recorded in his memoirs the incidents
of the campaign with his usual spirit. The march lay
through burnt villages and a country desolated by the
retiring army of James. They passed through Newry
and Carlingford, both of which towns were found
in ashes. They at length arrived in the neighbour-
hood of Dundalk, where they encamped. James lay at
Drogheda with an army of 20,000 men, or double their
number. But the generals of neither force wished for
battle ; — Schomberg, because he could not rely upon his
troops, who were ill-fed and (excepting the Huguenot
veterans) ill-disciplined ; l and Count Rosen, James's
French general, because he did not wish to incur the
risk of a defeat. The raw young English soldiers in
the camp at Dundalk, unused to campaigning, died in
1 Schomberg found that the better than the others." And a
greater number of them had never few months later he added —
before fired a pun. " Others can " From these three regiments,
inform your Majesty," he wrote and from that of cavalry, your
to William (12th Oct., 1689) Majesty has more service than
that the three regiments of from double the number of the
French infantry and their regi- others."
ment of cavalry do their duty
CHAP. xn. ENLISTMENT OF HUGUENOTS ABROAD. 223
great numbers. The English foot were mostly without
shoes and very badly fed ; yet they were eager to fight,
thinking it better to die in the field than in the camp.
When they clamoured to be led into action, Schomberg
good-humouredly said, " We English have stomach
enough for fighting : it is a pity that we are not equally
fond of some other parts of a soldier's business."
At length, after enduring great privations, and
leaving many of his men under the sod at Dun-
dalk, Schomberg decided to follow the example of
the Jacobite army, and go into winter quarters. His
conduct of the campaign occasioned much dissatis-
faction in England, where it was expected that he
should meet and fight James with a famished army
of less than half the number, and under every disad-
vantage. It had now, however, become necessary to
act with vigour if the policy initiated by the Revolu-
tion of 1688 was to be upheld; for a well-appointed
army of 7300 excellent French infantry, commanded
by the Count of Lauzun, with immense quantities of
arms and ammunition, were on their way from France,
with the object of expelling the Protestants from Ire-
land and replacing James upon the British throne.
William now felt that the great crisis of the struggle
had arrived. Determining to take the field in person,
he made his arrangements accordingly. He ordered
back from Flanders his best English and Dutch regi-
ments. He also endeavoured, so far as he could, to
fight Frenchmen with Frenchmen ; and he despatched
agents abroad, into all the countries where the banished
Huguenot soldiers had settled, inviting them to take
arms with him against the enemies of their faith. His
invitation was responded to with alacrity. Many of
Schomberg's old soldiers, who had settled in Branden-
burg, Switzerland, and the provinces of the Lower
Rhine, left their new homes and flocked to the stan-
dard of William. The Baron d'Avejan, lieutenant-
colonel of an English regiment, wrote to a friend in
Switzerland, urging the immediate enlistment of expa-
224 WILLIAM III. IN IRELAND. CHAP. xn.
triated Protestants for his regiment. " I feel assured,"
said he, " that you will not fail to have published in all
the French churches in Switzerland the obligations
under which the refugees lie to come and aid us in
this expedition, which is directed to the glory of God,
and ultimately to the re-establishment of His Church
in our country."
These stirring appeals had the effect of attracting a
large number of veteran Protestant soldiers to the army
of William. Sometimes four and five hundred men
left Geneva in a week for the purpose of enlisting in
England. Others were despatched from Lausanne,
where they were provided by the Marquis d'Arzilliers
with the means of reaching their destination. Many
more, scattered along the shores of Lake Leman, were
drilled daily under the flag of Orange, notwithstanding
the expostulations of Louis' agents, and sent to swell
the forces of William.
By these means, as well as by energetic efforts at
home,1 William was enabled, by the month of June,
1690, to assemble in the north of Ireland an army of
36,000 men — English, French, Dutch, Danes, and Ger-
mans ; and putting himself at their head, he at once
marched southward.2 Arrived at the Boyne, about
1 DE FELICE — History of the explained to his majesty the
Fi-ench Protestants (p. 339), says, cause of his being settled there ;
that " England raised eleven re- and as the king was about to pass
giments of French volunteers ; " on, he asked permission to em-
but he does not give his author- brace him. To this William at
ity. It is probable this number once assented, receiving the Hu-
is an exaggeration. guenot's salute on his cheek, —
* William landed at Oarrick- after which, stooping from his
fergus on the 14th of June, 1690. horse towards Bulmer's wife, a
From thence he proceeded to pretty Frenchwoman, he said,
Belfast. On his way southward "And thy wife too ;" and saluted
to join the army at Lough brick- her heartily. The name Bulmer
land, when passing through the has since been changed to Boomer,
village of Lambeg, near Lisburn, but the Christian name Rene or
he was addressed by one Ren6 Rainey is still preserved mong
Bulmer, a Huguenot refugee, the descendants of the family. —
then residing in a house now Ulster Journal of Archeology,
known as The Priory. Rene i. 135, 286-94.
CHAP. xii. BATTLE OF THE BOYNE. 225
three miles west of Drogheda, he discerned the com-
bined French and Irish army drawn up on the other
side, prepared to dispute the passage of the river. The
Huguenot regiments saw before them the flags of Louis
XIV. and James II. waving together — the army of the
king who had banished them from country, home, and
family, — making common cause with the persecutor of
the English Protestants ; and when it became known
amongst them that every soldier in the opposing force
bore the same badge — the white cross in their hats —
which distinguished the assassins of their forefathers
on the night of St. Bartholomew, they burned to meet
them in battle.
On the morning of the 1st of July, the Count
Me'nard de Schomberg, one of the old marshal's sons,
was ordered to cross the river on the right, by the
bridge of Slane, and turn the left flank of the opposing
army. This movement he succeeded in accomplishing
alter a short but sharp conflict ; upon which William
proceeded to lead his left, composed of cavalry, across
the river, considerably lower down. At the same time,
the main body of infantry composing the centre was
ordered to advance. The Dutch guards led, closely
followed by the Huguenot foot. Plunging into the
stream, they waded across and reached the opposite
bank under a storm of cannon and musketry. Scarcely
had they struggled up the right bank, than the Hu-
guenot colonel, La Caillemote, was struck down by a
musket-shot. As he was being carried oif the field,
covered with blood, through the ranks of his advanc-
ing troops, he called out to them, "A la gloire, mes
enfans ' a la gloire ! "
A strong body of Irish cavalry charged the advanc-
ing infantry with great vigour, shook them until they
reeled, and compelled them to give way. Old Marshal
Schomberg, who stood eagerly watching the advance
of his troops from the northern bank, now saw that
the crisis of the fight had arrived, and he prepared to
act accordingly. Placing himself at the head of his
IS
226 JAMES IT. DEFEATED. CHAP. xn.
Huguenot regiment of horse which he had held in
reserve, and pointing with his sword across the river,
he called out, " Allons, tries amis! rappelez votre
courage et vos ressentements : VOILA. vos PERSECU-
TEURS ! " l and plunged into the stream. On reaching
the scene of contest, a furious struggle ensued. The
Dutch and Huguenot infantry rallied ; and William,
coming up from the left with his cavahy, fell upon
the Irish flank and completed their discomfiture. The
combined French and Irish army was forced through
the pass of Duleek, and fled towards Dublin — James
II. being the first to carry thither the news of his
defeat.2 William's loss did not exceed 400 men ; but,
to his deep grief, Marshal Schomberg was found
amongst the fallen, the hero of eighty-two having been
cut down in the mele'e by a party of Tyrconnel's horse ;
and he lay dead upon the field, with many other
gallant gentlemen.
1 Rapin, who relates this inci- Tyrconnel, the wife of his vice-
dent in his History of England, roy. "Madam," said he, "your
was present at the battle of the countrymen can run well." " Not
Boyne as an officer in one of the quite so well as your Majesty,"
Huguenot regiments. was her retort. " for I see you
2 On reaching Dublin Castle. have won the race."
James was received by Lady
CHAPTER XIII.
HUGUENOT OFFICERS IN THE BRITISH SERVICE.
IT forms no part of our purpose to describe the
military operations in Ireland, which followed the
battle of the Boyne. We may, however, mention the
principal Huguenot officers who took part in them.
Amongst these, one of the most distinguished was
Henry, second Marquis de Ruvigny. At the date
of the Revocation, he had attained the rank of bri-
gadier in the army of Louis XIV., and was considered
an excellent officer, having served with great distinc-
tion under Conde and Turenne. Indeed, it is believed
that the French army in Germany would have been
lost, but for the skill with which he reconciled the
quarrels of the contending chiefs who aspired to its
command after the death of Turenne.
Louis XIV. desired to retain Ruvigny in his service ;
but casting in his lot with the exiled Protestants, he
left France with his father and settled with him at
Greenwich, where he dispensed hospitality and bounty.
He did not at first join the British army which fought
in Ireland. But when he heard that his only brother,
De la Caillemotte, as well as Marshal Schomberg, had
been killed at the Boyne, he could restrain his ardour
no longer, and offered his services to William. The
King appointed him major-general, and also gave him
the colonelcy of Schomberg's regiment of Huguenot
horse.
Ruvigny joined the army of General Ginkell, while
engaged in the siege of Athlone. A Huguenot soldier
228 RUVIGNY, EARL OF GALWAY. CHAP. xm.
was the first to mount the breach, where he fell, cheer-
ing on his comrades. The place was taken by Ginkell,
after which the French general, Saint Ruth, retired
with the Irish army to Aughrim, where he took up an
almost impregnable position. Notwithstanding this
advantage, Ginkell attacked and routed the Irish, the
principal share in the victory being attributed to the
Marquis de Ruvigny and his horse, who charged im-
petuously and carried everything before them.
That the brunt of this battle was borne by the
Huguenot regiments, is shown by the extent of their
loss. Ruvigny 's regiment lost 144 men killed and
wounded ; that of Cambon 106 ; and that of Belcastle
85 — being about one-fifth of the total loss on the side
of the victors. " After the battle," says De Bostaquet,
" Ginkell came up and embraced De Ruvigny, declaring
how much he was pleased with his bravery and his
conduct ; then advancing to the head of our regiment,
he highly praised the officers as well as the soldiers.
M. Causaubon, who commanded, gained great honour
by his valour that day." l For the services rendered
by De Ruvigny on this occasion, William raised him
to the Irish peerage, under the title of Earl of Galway,
In 1693, Lord Galway joined William in Flanders,
and was with him in the battle of Ne'erwinden, where
the combined Dutch and English army was defeated
by Marshal Luxemburg. The Huguenot leader fought
with conspicuous bravery at the head of his cavalry,
and succeeded in covering William's retreat. He was
shortly after promoted to the rank of lieutenant-
general.
The war with France was now raging all round her
borders, — along the Flemish and the German frontiers,
and as far south as the country of the Italian Vaudois.
The Vaudois were among the most ancient Protestant
people in Europe ; and Louis XIV., not satisfied with
exterminating Protestantism in his own dominions,
Meinoires Inedits de Ditmont de Bflstaqiict. p. 303.
CHAP. xin. WAR IN SAVOY. 229
sought to carry the crusade against it beyond his own
frontiers into the territories of his neighbours. He ac-
cordingly sent a missive to the young Duke of Savoy,
requiring him to extirpate the Vaudois, unless they
conformed to the Roman Catholic religion. The duke
refused to obey the French king's behest, and besought
the heir of the Emperor of Germany and the Protestant
princes of the north, to enable him to resist the armies
of Louis. The Elector of Brandenburg having applied
to William III. for one of his generals, Charles, Duke
of Schomberg, whose father fell at the Boyne, was at
once despatched to the aid of the Savoy prince, with
an army consisting for the most part of Huguenot
refugees. William also undertook to supply a subsidy
of £100,000 a year, as the joint contribution of Eng-
land and Holland to the cause of Protestantism in
Piedmont.
On Schomberg's arrival at Turin, he found the
country in a state of great consternation, the French
army under Catinat having overrun it in various
directions. With Schomberg's vigorous help, the pro-
gress of the French army was for a time checked ;
but unfortunately Schomberg allowed himself to be
drawn into a pitched battle on the plains of Marsiglia
in October, 1693, when his army suffered a complete
defeat. At the same time the general received a
mortal wound, of which he died a few days after the
battle.
On this untoward result of the campaign becoming
known in England, the Earl of Galway was despatched
into Savoy to take the command ; as well as to repre-
sent England and Holland as ambassador at the court
of Turin. To his dismay, the Earl discovered that the
Duke of Savoy was then engaged in a secret treaty
with the French Government for peace ; on which he
at once withdrew with his contingent — the only object
he had been able to accomplish, being to secure a
certain degree of liberty of worship for the persecuted
Vaudois.
230 RUVIGNY AND PC R'l ARLINGTON. CHAP. xin.
On his return to England, the Earl was appointed
one of the Lords-Justices of Ireland; and during the
time that he held that office, he devoted himself to
the establishment of the linen trade, the improvement
of agriculture, and the reparation of the losses and
devastations from which the country had suffered
during the civil wars.
In the meantime, Louis XIV., with that meanness
of character that distinguished him in all his dealings
with the Huguenots, when he heard of Ruvigny's
services to William III., ordered the immediate confis-
cation of all his property in France. To compensate
Ruvigny for this heavy loss, William conferred upon
him the confiscated estate of Portarlington ; when he
at once proceeded to found a Huguenot colony at that
place. By his influence he induced a large number
of the best class of the refugees — principally exiled
officers and gentry, with their families — to settle there;
and he liberally assisted them out of his private
means in promoting the industry and prosperity of
the town and neighbourhood. He erected more than
a hundred new dwellings of a superior kind, for the
accommodation of the settlers. He built and endowed
two churches for their use — one French, the other
English, — as well as two excellent schools for the
education of their children. Thus the little town
of Portarlington shortly became a centre of polite
learning, from which emanated some of the most
distinguished men in Ireland ; while the gentle and
industrious life of the colonists exhibited an example
of patient labour, neatness, thrift, and orderliness,
which exercised a considerable influence on the sur-
rounding population.
Lord Galway was not, however, permitted to enjoy
the grant which William III. had made to him, of the
Portarlington estate. The appropriation was violently
attacked in the English Parliament; and a bill was
passed annulling that and all grants of a like kind
which had been made by the King. The estate was
CHAP. XIII.
TIIK HUGUENOTS REGIMENTS.
231
accordingly taken from Lord Galway, and sold by
the Government Commissioners to the London Hollow
Sword-Blade Company. The Earl's career as an Irish
landlord was thus brought to an end ; and Ruvigny,
like many of his fellow-exiles, was again left landless.
During the time, however, that the Portarlington
estate was in his possession, he granted to some of
the Huguenot exiles leases for lives, renewable for
ever. These leases were not interfered with, and they
still continue in force.
While the English Parliament displayed this jealousy
of the foreign officers by whom William III. had been
so faithfully served, and who contributed so materially
to the success of the Revolution of 1688, they enter-
tained an equal jealousy of the Huguenot regiments
which still remained in the service of the Kino-. Fre-
O
quent motions were made in the House of Commons
for their disembodiment ; and on the loth of Septem-
ber, 1698, on the motion for going into a committee
of supply, the amendment was proposed : " That an
address be presented to the Lords- Justices to intercede
with His Majesty that the five regiments 1 of French
Protestants should be disbanded." In the face of the
war which was impending in Europe, William could
not agree to the measure; and the regiments continued
to be actively employed under different designations
down to the middle of the eighteenth century.
1 There were two cavalry regiments, and three infantry, in the
Huguenot force, viz. : —
Non-Com-
Companies
Officers.
missioned
Officers.
Priv»tc»
TotaL
Galway's Horse . .
9
113
85
531
729
Miremont's Dragoons
8
74
104
480
658
Marlon's Foot . . .
13
83
104
780
967
La Meloniere's do. .
13
83
104
780
967
Belcastel's do. . . .
L3
83
104
780
967
436
501
3351
4288
232 EARL OF GALWAY IN SPAIN. CHAP. xm.
Nothing could shake the King's attachment to Lord
Galway, or Lord Galway's to him. Being unable,
as King of England, to reward his faithful follower,
William appointed him general in the Dutch army,
and colonel of the Dutch regiment of foot-guards
(blue). In 1701, Evelyn thus records in his diary a
visit made to the distinguished refugee on his arrival
in London from Ireland : — "June 22. — I went to
congratulate the arrival of that worthy and excellent
person, my Lord Galway, newly come out of Ireland,
where he had behaved himself so honestly and to the
exceeding satisfaction of the people ; but he was re-
moved thence for being a Frenchman, though they
had not a more worthy, valiant, discreet, and trusty
person on whom they could have relied for conduct
and fitness. He was one who had deeply suffered,
as well as the Marquis his father, for being Pro-
testants."
From this time, Lord Galway was principally em-
ployed abroad on diplomatic missions, and in the field.
The war against France was now in progress on the
side of Spain, where the third Duke of Schomberg,
Count Me'nard, — who led the attack in the battle of the
Boyne, — was, in 1704, placed in command of the British
troops, then fighting against the Bourbon Philip V., in
conjunction with a Portuguese force. Philip was
supported by a French army under command of the
Duke of Berwick, the natural son of the dethroned
James II. The campaign having languished under
Schomberg, and the government at home becoming
dissatisfied with his conduct, the Earl of Galway was
sent out to Portugal to take the command.
The battles which followed were mostly fought over
the ground since made so famous by the victories of
Wellington. There was the relief of Gibraltar, the
storming of Alcantara, the siege of Badajos — in which
the Earl of Galway lost an arm — the capture of
Ciudad Rodrigo, and the advance upon Madrid. Then
followed the defection of the Portuguese, and a sue-
CHAP. xin. BRA VERT OF UUGUENOT OFFICERS. 233
cession of disasters : the last of which was the battle
of Almanza, where the British, ill-supported by their
Portuguese allies, were defeated by the French army
under the Duke of Berwick. Shortly afterwards, the
British forces returned home, and the Earl of Galway
resided for the rest of his life mostly at Rookley, near
Southampton, taking a kindly interest to the last in
the relief of his countrymen suffering for conscience'
sake.1
When the refugees first entered the service of
the Elector of Brandenburg, doubts were expressed
whether they would fight against their fellow-country-
men. When they went into action at Neuss, one
of the Prussian generals exclaimed, "We shall have
these knaves fighting against us presently." But all
doubts were dispelled by the conduct of the Hugue-
not musketeers, who rushed eagerly upon the French
troops, and by the fuiy of their attack carried every-
thing before them. It was the same at the siege of
Bonn, where a hundred refugee officers, three hundred
Huguenot cadets, with detachments of musketeers
and horse grenadiers, demanded to be led to the
assault ; and on the signal being given, they rushed
forward with extraordinary gallantry. " The officers,"
says Ancillon, " gave proof that they preferred rather
to rot in the earth after an honourable death, than
that the earth should nourish them in idleness whilst
their soldiers were in the heat of the fight." The
outer works were carried, and the place was taken.
1 It was when on a visit at Russell was his nearest surviving
Stratton House, that the good relative, and became his heiress
Earl of Galway was summoned at the age of eighty-four. The
to his rest. He probably sank property of Stratton has passed
under the " bodily pains " to out of Russell hands ; and Lord
which he was so long subject — Galway 's gravestone [in Michel-
namely, gout and rheumatism. dever churchyard, where he was
His mind was entire to the last. buried"!, cannot now be recog-
He died on the 3rd of September, nised.— AGNEW— Protexta nt JEx-
1720, aged seventy-two. He was iles from France in tJie reign of
the last of his family. Lady Louis XI V.} p. 149.
234 JEAN CAVALIER. CHAP. xiu.
But nowhere did the Huguenots display such a fury
of resentment against the troops of Louis as at the
battle of Almanza, above referred to, where they were
led by Cavalier, the famous Camisard chief.
Jean Cavalier was the son of a peasant, of the
village of Ribaute, near Anduze, in Languedoc. Being
an ardent Protestant, he took refuge from the persecu-
tions in Geneva and Lausanne, where he worked for
some time as a journeyman baker. But his love for
his native land drew him back to Languedoc ; and he
"happened to visit it in 1702, at the time when the
Abbe du Chayla was engaged in directing the extir-
pation of the Protestant peasantry in the Cevennes.
These poor people continued, in defiance of the law,
to hold religious meetings in the woods, and caves,
and fields ; in consequence of which they were
tracked, pursued, sabred, hanged, or sent to the galleys,
wherever found.
The peasants at length revolted. From forty to fifty
of the most determined among them assembled at the
Abbs' du Chayla's house at Pont-de-Montvert, and
proceeded to break open the dungeon in which he had
penned up a band of prisoners, amongst whom were
two ladies of rank. The Abbd ordered his servants to
repel the assailants with firearms; nevertheless they
succeeded in effecting an entrance, and stabbed the
priest to death. Such was the beginning of the war
of the Blouses, or Camisards. The Camisards were
only poor peasants, driven to desperation by cruelty,
without any knowledge of war, and without any arms
except such as they wrested from the hands of their
enemies. Yet they maintained a gallant struggle
against the united French armies for a period of nearly
five years.
On the outbreak of the revolt, Jean Cavalier assem-
bled a company of volunteers to assist the Cevennes
peasantry ; and before long he became their recog-
nised leader. Though the insurrection spread over
Languedoc, their entire numbers did not exceed 10,000
CHAP. XIII. WAI?- OF THE CAM JS ADDS. 235
men. But they had the advantage of fighting in a
mountain country, every foot of which was familiar
to them. They carried on the war by surprises,
clothing and arming themselves with the spoils they
took from the royal troops. They supplied them-
selves with balls made from the church-bells. They
had no money, and needed none ; the peasantry and
herdsmen of the country supplying them with food.
When they were attacked, they received the first fire
of the soldiers on one knee, singing the sixty-eighth
psalm : " Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered."
Then they rose, precipitated themselves on the enemy,
and fought with all the fury of despair. If they suc-
ceeded in their onslaughts, and the soldiers fled, they
then held assemblies, which were attended by the
Huguenots of the adjoining country ; and when they
failed, they fled into the hills, in the caverns of which
were their magazines and hospitals.
Great devastation and bloodshed marked the w,ar
carried on against the Camisards. No mercy was
shown either to the peasantry taken in arms, or to
those who in any way assisted them. Whole villages
were destroyed. The order was issued that wherever
a soldier or a priest perished, the village should im-
mediately be burnt down. The punishment of the
stake was revived. Gibbets were erected arid kept at
work all over Languedoc. Still the insurrection was
not suppressed; and the peasantry continued to hold
their religious meetings wherever they could.
One day, on the 1st of April, 1703, the intelligence
was brought to Marshal Montrevil, in command of the
royal troops, that some three hundred persons had
assembled for worship in a mill near Nisrnes. He at
once hastened to the place with a strong force of
soldiers, ordered the doors to be burst open, and the
worshippers slaughtered on the spot. The slowness
with which the butchery was carried on provoked the
marshal's indignation, and he ordered the mill to be
fired. All who had not been murdered were burnt, —
236 MARSHAL VILLARS AND CAVALIER. CHAP, xin
all, excepting one solitary girl, who was saved through
the humanity of the marshal's lacquey ; but she was
hanged next day, and the lacquey who had saved her
narrowly escaped the same fate.
Even this monstrous cruelty did not crush the in-
surrection. The Camisards were from time to time
reinforced by burnt-out peasants ; and, led by Cavalier
and his coadjutor Roland, they beat the detachments
of Montrevil on every side — at Nayes, at the rocks
at Aubias, at Martignargues, and at the bridge of
Salindres. Louis XIV. was disgusted at the idea of
a marshal of France, supported by a royal army
thoroughly appointed, being set at defiance by a mise-
rable horde of Protestant peasants ; and he ordered
the recall of Montrevil. Marshal Villars was then sent
to take the command.
The new marshal was an honourable man, and not
a butcher. He shuddered at the idea of employing
means such as his predecessor had employed, to reduce
the King's subjects to obedience ; and one of the first
things he did was to invite Cavalier to negotiate. The
quondam baker's boy of Geneva agreed to meet the
potent marshal of France, and listen to his proposals.
Villars thus described him in his letter to the minis-
ter of war : " He is a peasant of the lowest rank, not
yet twenty-two years of age, and scarcely seeming
eighteen ; small, and with no imposing mien, but pos-
sessing a firmness and good sense that are altogether
surprising. He has great talent in arranging for the
subsistence of his men, and disposes his troops as
well as the best trained officers could do. From the
moment Cavalier began to treat, up to the conclusion
of the affair, he has always acted in good faith/' *
In the negotiations which ensued, Cavalier stipu-
lated for liberty of conscience and freedom of worship,
1 The war against the Cami- France, after tJie Revocation of
sards is treated at much greater tlie Edict of Nantes.
length in The HuQuenots in
CHAP. xni. CA V ALTER JOINS TUE ENGLISH ARMY. 237
to which, it is said, Villars assented, though the Roman
Catholics subsequently denied this. The result, how-
ever, was that Cavalier capitulated, accepted a colonel's
commission, and went to Versailles to meet Louis XIV.;
his fellow-leader, Roland, refusing the terms of capitu-
lation, and determining to continue the struggle. At
Paris, the mob, eager to behold the Cevennol rebel,
thi'onged the streets he rode through, and his reception
was tantamount to a triumph. At Versailles Louis
exhorted him in vain to be converted, Cavalier even
daring in his presence to justify the revolt in the
Cevennes. He was offered the rank of major-general
in the French army, and a pension of 1500 livres for
his father; but he refused, and was dismissed from
court as " an obstinate Huguenot."
Though treated with apparent kindness, Cavalier
felt that he was under constant surveillance ; and he
seized the earliest opportunity of flying from France
and taking refuge in Switzerland. From thence he
passed into Holland, and entered the service of Wil-
liam of Orange, who gave him the rank of colonel.
The Blouses, or Camisards, who had fled from the
Cevennes in large numbers, flocked to his standard,
and his regiment was soon full. But a serious diffi-
culty occurred. Cavalier insisted on selecting his own
officers, while the royal commissioners required that
the companies should be commanded by refugee gen-
tlemen. The matter was compromised by Cavalier
selecting half his officers, and the commissioners ap-
pointing the other half, — Cavalier selecting only such
as had thoroughly proved their valour in the battles
of the Cevennes. The regiment, when complete, pro-
ceeded to England, and was despatched to Spain with
other reinforcements towards the end of 1706.
Almost the only battle in which Cavalier and his
Huguenots took part, was at the field of Almanza,
where they distinguished themselves in a remarkable
manner. Cavalier found himself opposed to one of
the French regiments, in whom he recognised his
238 PliOMOTION AND DEATH OF CAVALIER. CHAP. xm.
former persecutors in the Cevennes. The soldiers on
both sides, animated by a common fury, rushed upon
each other with the bayonet, disdaining to fire. The
carnage which followed was dreadful. The Papist
regiment was almost annihilated, whilst of Cavalier's
regiment, 700 strong, not more than 300 survived.
Marshal Berwick, though familiar with fierce encoun-
ters, never spoke of this tragical event without deep
emotion. Cavalier himself was severely wounded, and
lay for some time among the slain. He afterwards
escaped through the assistance of an English officer.
His lieutenant-colonel, five captains, six lieutenants,
and five ensigns were killed, and most of the other
officers were wounded or taken prisoners.
Cavalier returned to England, where he retired
upon a small pension, which barely supported him.1
He entreated to be employed in active service; but
it was not until after the lapse of many years that
his application was successful. He was eventually
appointed governor of Jersey, and held that office for
some time ; after which he was made brigadier in 1735,
and further promoted to be major-general in 1739. He
died at Chelsea in the following year ; and his remains
were conveyed to Dublin for interment in the French
refugee cemetery.
Another illustrious name amongst the Huguenot re-
fugees is that of Paul de Rapin-Thoyras, — better known
as the historian of England than as a soldier, — though
he bore arms with the English in many a hard-fought
field. He belonged to a French noble family, and was
lord of Thoyras, near Castres. The persecution drove
him and his family into England ; but finding nothing
to do there, he went over to Holland and joined the
army of William as a cadet. He accompanied the
1 While lie resided in London, memoirs of his early adventures,
Cavalier employed part of his which were published under the
leisure in dictating to another title of Memoirs of the Wars of
refugee, Galli of Nismes, the the Cevennes : London, 1726.
CHAP. xin. RAPIX, THE HISTORIAN. 239
expedition to Torbay, and took part in the transac-
tions which followed. Rapin was afterwards sent
into Ireland with his regiment; and, distinguishing
himself by his gallantry at the siege of Carrickfergus,
he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. He after-
wards fought at the Boyne, and was wounded at the
assault of Limerick. At Athlone he was one of the
first to enter the place at the head of the assailing
force. He was there promoted to a company; and he
remained at Athlone doing garrison duty for about
two years. His intelligence and high culture being
well known, Rapin was selected by the King, on the
recommendation of the Earl of Galway, as tutor to
the Earl of Portland's eldest son, Viscount Woodstock.
He accordingly took leave of the anny with regret,
making over his company to his brother, who after-
wards attained the rank of lieutenant-colonel.
From this time, Rapin lived principally abroad,
in company with his pupil. Whilst residing at the
Hague, he resumed his favourite study of history and
jurisprudence, which had been interrupted by his
flight from France at the Revocation. After com-
pleting Lord Woodstock's education, Rapin settled
at Wesel, where a number of retired refugee officers
resided and formed a very agreeable society. There
he wrote his Dissertation on Whigs and Torie, and
his well-known History of England, founded on
Rhymer's Fcedera, the result of much labour and
research, and long regarded as a standard work.
Rapin died in 1725, at the age of sixty-four, almost
pen in hand, worn out by hard study and sedentary
confinement.
Among the many able Huguenot officers in William's
service, John de Bodt was one of the most distin-
guished. He had fled from France when only in his
fifteenth year, and shortly after joined the Dutch
artillery. He accompanied William to England, and
was made captain in 1690. He fought at the Boyne
and at Anghrim, and eventually rose to the command ot
240 THE LIGONILRS. CHAP. xin.
the Huguenot corps of Engineers. In that capacity he
served at the battles of Steinkirk and Ne'erwinden,
and at the siege of Namur he directed the operations
which ended in the surrender of the castle to the allied
army. The fort into which Boufflers had thrown him-
self was assaulted and captured a few days later by La
Cave at the head of 2000 volunteers ; and William III.
generously acknowledged that it was mainly to the
brave refugees that he owed the capture of that impor-
tant fortress.
All through the wars in the Low Countries, under
William III., Eugene, and the Duke of Marlborough,
the refugees bore themselves bravely. Wherever the
fighting was hardest, they were there. Henry de
Chesnoi led the assault which gave Landau to the
allies. At the battles of Hochstedt, Oudenarde, and
Malplacquet, and at the siege of Mons, they were
conspicuous for their valour. Le Roche, the Huguenot
engineer, conducted the operations at Lisle, — " doing
more execution," says Luttrell, " in three days than
De Meer, the German, in six weeks."
The refugee Ligoniers served with peculiar distinc-
tion in the British army. The most eminent was Jean
Louis, afterwards Field Marshal Earl Ligonier. who
had fled from France into England in 1697. He ac-
companied the army to Flanders as a volunteer in
1702, where his extraordinary bravery at the storming
of Liege attracted the attention of Marlborough. At
Blenheim, where he next fought, he was the only
captain of his regiment who survived. At Menin he
led the grenadiers who stormed the counterscarp. He
fought at Malplacquet, where he was major of brigade,
and in all Marlborough's great battles. At Dettingen,
as lieutenant-general, he earned still higher distinction.
At Fontenoy the chief honour was due to him for the
intrepidity and skill with which he led the British
infantry. In 1746 he was placed in command of the
British forces in Flanders, but was taken prisoner at
the battle of Lawfield. Restored to England, he was
CHAP. xin. THE HUGUENOT SAILORS. 241
appointed commander- in-chief and colonel of the First
Foot Guards ; and in 1770 the Huguenot hero died full
of honours at the ripe age of ninety-two.
Of the thousands of Protestant sailors who left
France at the Revocation, many settled in the ports
along the south and south-east coast of England ; but
the greater number entered the Dutch fleet, while some
of them took service, in the navy of the Elector of Bran-
denburg. Louis XIV. took the same steps to enforce
conversion upon his sailors, that he adopted to convert
the other classes of his subjects. So soon, however, as
the sailors arrived in foreign ports, they usually took
the opportunity of deserting their ships and reasserting
their liberty. In 1686, three French vessels which had
put into Dutch ports were entirely deserted by their
crews; and in the same year more than 800 experi-
enced mariners, trained under Duquesne, entered the
navy of the United Provinces. When William sailed
for England in 1688, the island of Zealand alone sent
him 150 excellent French sailors, who were placed, as
picked men, on board the admiral and vice-admiral's
ships. Like their Huguenot fellow-countrymen on
land, the Huguenot sailors fought valiantly at sea
under the flag of their adopted country ; and they
emulated the bravery of the English at the great naval
battle of La Hogue, which occurred a few years later.
Many descendants of the refugees subsequently at-
tained high rank in the naval service, and acquired
distinction by their valour on that element which
England has been accustomed to regard as peculiarly
her own. Amongst them may be mentioned "the
gallant, good Riou," who was killed while commanding
the Amazon frigate at Copenhagen in 1801, and the
Gambiers, descended from a refugee family long set-
tled at Canterbury, one of whom rose to be a vice-
admiral, and another an admiral, the latter having also
been raised to the peerage for his distinguished public
services.
16
CHAPTER XIV.
HUGUENOT MEN OF SCIENCE AND LEARNING.
OF the half- million of French subjects who were driven
into exile by the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes,
more than 120,000 are believed to have taken refuge
in England. The refugees were men of all i*anks and
conditions, — landed gentry, ministers of religion, sol-
diers and sailors, professional men, merchants, students,
mechanics, artizans, and labourers. The greater num-
ber were Calvinists, and continued such ; others were
Lutherans, who conformed to the English Church ; but
many were Protestants merely in name, principally
because they belonged to families of that persuasion.
But however lightly their family religion might sit
upon them, these last offered as strenuous a resistance
as the most extreme Calvinists to being dragooned
into popery. This was especially the case with men
of science, professional men, and students of law and
medicine. Hence the large proportion of physicians
and surgeons to be found in the ranks of the refu-
gees.
It was not merely free religious thought that Louis
XIV. sought to stifle in France, but free thought of all
kinds. The blow struck by him at the conscience of
France, struck also at its mind. Individualism was
crushed wherever it asserted itself. An entire abnega-
tion of the will was demanded. Men must abjure their
faith, and believe as they were ordered. They must
become part of a stereotyped system — profess adher-
ence to a Church to whioh they were indifferent, if
CHAP. xiv. INTELLECTUAL TYRANNY RESISTED. 243
they did not actually detest it — pretend to believe
what they really did not believe, — and in many cases
deny their most deeply-rooted convictions.
To indolent minds such a system would no doubt
save an infinity of trouble. Only induce men to give
up their individuality, — to renounce the exercise of
their judgment — to cease to think — and to entertain
the idea that a certain set of men, and no other, hold in
their hands the keys of heaven and hell, — and conformity
becomes easy. But many of the French King's sub-
jects were of another temperament. They would think
for themselves in matters of science as well as religion ;
and the vigorous, the independent, and the self-reliant
— Protestant as well as non- Protestant — revolted
against the intellectual tyranny which Louis attempted
to establish amongst them, and fled for liberty of
thought and worship into other lands'
We have already referred to such men as Huyghens
and Bayle, who took refuge in Holland, where they
found the freedom denied them in their own country.
These men were not Protestants so much as philoso-
phers. But they could not be hypocrites, and they
would not conform. Hence their flight from France.
Others of like stamp took refuge in England. Amongst
the latter were some of the earliest speculators as to
that wonderful motive power which eventually be-
came embodied in the working steam-engine One of
these fugitives was Solomon de Caus, a native of Caux
in Normandy. He was a man of encyclopaedic know-
ledge; he had studied architecture in Italy; he was
an engineer, a mechanic, and a natural philosopher.
Moreover, he was a Huguenot, which was fatal to his
existence in France as a free man, and he took refuge
in England, There he was employed about the court
for a time, and amongst other works he designed and
erected hydraulic works for the palace gardens at
Richmond. Shortly after he accompanied the Princess
Elizabeth to Heidelberg, in Germany, on her marriage
to the Elector Palatine, and there he published several
244 DR. DENIS PAPIN. CHAP. xiv.
works descriptive of the progress he had made in his
inquiries as to the marvellous powers of steam.
But still more distinguished among the Huguenot
refugees was Dr. Denis Papin, one of the early inven-
tors of the steam-engine, and probably also the inven-
tor of the steamboat.1 He was born at Blois in 1650,
and had studied medicine at the University of Paris,
where he took his degree as physician. He began
the practice of his profession, in which he met with
considerable success. Being attracted to the study
of mechanics, and having the advantage of the in-
struction of the celebrated Huyghens, he made rapid
progress, and promised to become one of the most
eminent scientific men of his country. But Papin was
a Protestant ; and when the practice of medicine by
Protestant physicians came to be subjected to serious
disabilities, — finding the door to promotion or even to
subsistence closed against him unless he abjured, — he
determined to leave France; and in 1681, the same year
in which Huyghens took refuge in Holland, Papin
took refuge in England. Arrived in London, he was
cordially welcomed by men of science there, and espe-
pecially by the Honourable Robert Boyle, under whose
auspices he was introduced to the Royal Society.
In 1684, Papin was appointed temporary curator
of the Royal Society, with a salary of £30 a year. It
formed part of his duty, in connection with his new
office, to produce an experiment at each meeting of the
society; and this led him to prosecute his inquiries
into the powers of steam, and ultimately to invent
his steam-engine. Papin 's reputation having extended
abroad, he was invited to fill the office of professor of
mathematics in the University of Marburg, which he
accepted ; and he left England in the year 1687. But
he continued until his death, many years later, to
maintain a friendly correspondence with his scientific
1 For an account of Solomon torical Memoir of the Invention
de Caus, as well as of the life and of the Steam-Engine," in Lives of
labours of Dr. Papin, see " His- Bmtlton and Watt pp. 8, 30-8.
CHAP. XIV. DR. DESAGULIERS. 245
friends in England ; and one of the last things he did
was to construct a model steam-engine fitted in a boat
— " une petite machine d'un vaisseau a roues " — for the
purpose of sending it over to England for trial on the
Thames. But, unhappily for Papin, the little vessel
never reached England. To his great grief, he found
that when it reached Miinden on the Weser, it had
been seized by the boatmen on the river and barba-
rously destroyed. Three years later, the illustrious
exile died, worn out by work and anxiety, leaving it
to other inventors to realise the great ideas which he
had conceived as to navigation by steam-power.
Dr. Desaguliers was another refugee who achieved
considerable distinction in England as a teacher of
mechanical philosophy. His father, Jean des Aguliers,
was pastor of a Protestant congregation at Aitre', near
Rochelle, from which he fled about the period of the
Revocation. His child, the future professor, is said
to have been carried on board the ship by which he
escaped, concealed in a barrel.1 The pastor first took
refuge in Guernsey, from whence he proceeded to
England, took orders in the Established Church, and
became minister of the French chapel in Swallow
Street, London. This charge he subsequently re-
signed, and established a school at Islington, at which
his son received his first education. From thence the
young man proceeded to Oxford, matriculating at
Christ Church, where he obtained the degree of B.A.,
and took deacon's orders. Being drawn to the study
of natural philosophy, he shortly after delivered lec-
tures at Oxford on hydrostatics and optics, to which
he afterwards added mechanics.
His fame as a lecturer having reached London,
1 This statement is made in the worth, one of the successors ta
"House and Farm Accounts of Gawthorpe, having married Anne,
the Shuttleworths of Gawthorpe the second daughter of General
Hall." — Chetham Society 'sPapcrs, Desaguliers (son of the above
18i>6-8. The Shuttleworths were Dr. Desaguliers), who was one
related by marriage to the Des- of the equerries of George III.
aguliers family ; Robert Shuttle-
246 DESA G ULIEIiS AND DUE A XI). CHAP. xiv.
Desaguliers was pressingly invited thither; and he
accordingly removed to the metropolis in 1713. His
lectures were much admired, and he had so happy a
knack of illustrating them by experiments, that he
was invited by the Royal Society to be their demon-
strator. He was afterwards appointed curator of the
Society ; and in the course of his connection with it,
he communicated a vast number of curious and valu-
able papers, which were printed in the Transactions.
The Duke of Chandos gave Desaguliers the church
living of Edge ware ; and the king (before whom he
gave lectures at Hampton Court) presented him with
a benefice in Essex, besides appointing him chaplain to
the Prince of Wales.
In 1734 Desaguliers published his Course of Experi-
mental Philosophy in two quarto volumes, — the best
book of the kind that had appeared in England. It
would appear from this work that the Doctor also
designed and superintended the erection of steam-
engines. Referring to an improvement which he had
made on Savary's engine, he says: "According to this
improvement, I have caused seven of these fire-engines
to be erected since the year 1717 or 1718. The first
was for the late Czar Peter the Great, for his garden
at Petersburg, where it was set up." Dr. Desaguliers
died in 1749, leaving behind him three sons, one of
whom, the eldest, published a translation of the
Mathematical Elements of Natural Philosophy, by
Gravesande, who had been a pupil of his father's ;
the second was a beneficed clergyman in Norfolk ; and
the third was a colonel of artillery and lieutenant
general in the army, as well as equerry to George III.
Among other learned refugees who were elected
members of the Royal Society, were David Durand,
the editor of Pliny's Natural History, The Philo-
sophical Writings of Cicero, and other classical works,
and the author of a Histot^y of the Sixteenth Century,
as well as of the continuation of Rapin's History of
England ; Peter des Maiseaux, the intimate friend of
CHAP. XIY. ABRAHAM DE MOIVRE. 247
St. Evremonde, whose works he edited and translated
into English ; and Abraham de Moivre, the celebrated
mathematician.
De Moivre was the son of a surgeon at Vitry in
Champagne, and received his principal education at
the Protestant seminary of Sedan. From the first
he displayed an extraordinary genius for arithmetic.
His chief delight in his bye-hours was to shut himself
up with Le Gendre's arithmetic and work out its prob-
lems. This led one of his classical masters to ask on
one occasion, " What that little rogue meant to do with
all these cyphers ? " When the college of Sedan was
suppressed in 1681, De Moivre went to Saumur to pur-
sue his studies in philosophy, from whence he went to
Paris to prosecute the study of physics. By this time
his father, being prohibited practising as a surgeon
because of his religion, left Vitry to join his son at
Paris ; but they were not allowed to remain together.
The agents of the government, acting on their power
of separating children from their parents, and subject-
ing them to the process of conversion, seized young
De Moivre in his nineteenth year, and shut him up in
the priory of St. Martin. There his Jesuit masters
tried to drill him into the Roman Catholic faith ; but
the young Protestant was staunch, and refused to
be converted. Being pronounced an obstinate heretic,
he was discharged after about two years' confine-
ment, on which he was ordered forthwith to leave the
country.
De Moivre arrived in London with his father1 in
1687, at the age of twenty, and immediately bestirred
himself to earn a living. He had no means but his
knowledge and his industry. He first endeavoured to
obtain pupils, to instruct them in mathematics ; and he
also began, like others of the refugees, to give lectures
1 We find, from the List of Moivre obtained letters of natu-
Foreign Protestants, published ralisation on the 16th of Decem-
by the Camden Society (1862), ber, 1687.
that Abraham and Daniel de
248 NEWTON AND DE MOIVRE. CHAP. xiv.
on natural philosophy. But his knowledge of English
was as yet too imperfect to enable him to lecture with
success, and he was, besides, an indifferent manipu-
lator, so that his lectures were shortly discontinued. It
happened that the Principia of Newton was published
about the time that De Moivre arrived in England.
The subject offering great attractions to a mind such
as his, he entered upon the study of the book with
much zest, and succeeded before long in mastering its
contents, and arriving at a clear understanding of the
views of the author. Indeed, so complete was his
knowledge of Newton's principles, that it is said, when
Sir Isaac was asked for explanations of his writings,
he would say : " Go to De Moivre ; he knows better
than I do."
Thus De Moivre acquired the friendship and respect
of Newton, of Halley, and other distinguished scientific
men of the time ; and one of the best illustrations of
the esteem in which his intellectual qualifications were
held, is afforded by the fact that in the contention
which arose between Leibnitz and Newton as to their
respective priority in the invention of the method of
fluxions, the Royal Society appointed De Moivre to
report upon their rival claims.
De Moivre published many original works on his
favourite subject, more particularly on analytical ma-
thematics. Professor De Morgan has observed of them,
that "they abound with consummate contrivance
and skill; and one, at least, of his investigations
has had the effect of completely changing the whole
character of trigonometrical science in its higher
departments." l One of the works published by him,
entitled The Doctrine of Chances, is curious, as leading,
in a measure, to the development of the science of life
assurance. Fr.jm the first edition, it does not appear
that De Moivre intended to do more than illustrate his
favourite theory of probabilities. He showed in a
1 Art. " De Moivre " in Penny Cyclopaedia.
CHAP. xiv. DE MOIVRE ON PROBABILITIES. 249
variety of ways the probable results of throwing dice
in certain numbers of throws. From dice throwing he
proceeded to lotteries, and showed how many tickets
ought to be taken to secure the probability of drawing
a prize. A few years later he applied his views to a
more practical purpose — the valuation of annuities on
lives; and though the data on which he based his
calculations were incorrect, and his valuations conse-
quently unreliable, the publication of his Doctrine of
Chances applied to the valuation of annuities on lives,
was of much use at the time it appeared; and it
formed the basis of other and more accurate calcula-
tions.
De Moivre's books were on too abstruse subjects to
yield him much profit, and during the later years of
his life he had to contend with poverty. It is said
that he derived a precarious subsistence from fees
paid to him for solving questions relative to games of
chance and other matters connected with the value of
probabilities. He frequented a coffee-house in St.
Martin's Lane, of which he was one of the attractions ;
and there his customers sought him to work out their
problems. The occupation could not have been very
tolerable to such a man ; but he was growing old and
helpless in body, and his powers of calculation formed
his only capital. He survived to the age of eighty-
seven, but during the last month of his life he sank
into a state of total lethargy. Shortly before his
decease, the Academy of Berlin elected him a member.
The French Academy of Sciences also elected him a
foreign associate ; and on the news of his death reach-
ing Paris, M. de Fouchy drew up an eloquent eloge of
the exiled Huguenot, which was duly inserted in the
records of the Academy.
For the reasons above stated, the number of refugee
physicians and surgeons who sought the asylum of
England was very considerable. Many of them settled
to practise in London and various towns in the south,
while others obtained appointments in the army and
250 IIUGUENOT LITERATI. CHAP, xiv
navy. Weiss says it was to the French surgeons
especially, that England was in a great measure in-
debted for the remarkable perfection to which English
surgical instruments arrived. The College of Physi-
cians in London generously opened their doors to the
admission of their foreign brethren. Between the
years 1681 and 1689 we find nine French physicians
admitted, amongst whom we observe the name of the
eminent Sebastian le Fevre.1
Among the literary men of the emigration were the
brothers Du Moulin — Louis, for some time Camden
professor of history at Oxford, and Peter, prebendary
of Canterbury — both authors of numerous works ;
Henry Justel (secretary to Louis XIV.), who sold off
his valuable library and fled to England some years
before the Revocation, when he was appointed King's
librarian ; Peter Anthony Motteaux, an excellent
linguist, whose translations of Cervantes and Rabelais
first popularised the works of those writers in this
country ; Maximilian Misson, author of A New Voyage
to Italy, Theatre Sacre* des Cevennes, and other works;
Michel de la Roche, author of Memoirs of Literature,
and A Literary Journal, which filled up a consider-
able gap in literary history;2 Michel Mattaire, M.A.
1 The family were of long and vantage that can never be too
eminent standing in Anjou as much valued. Being a studious
medical men. Joshua le Fevre man, it was veiy natural to me
obtained letters of naturalisation to write some books, which I
in 1681; but before that date have done, partly in English and
Nicasius le Fevre, a member of partly in French, for the space of
the same family, was appointed twenty years. The only advan-
chemist to Charles II., with a tage I have got by them is that
fee of £150 a year. — DURRANI they have not been unacceptable,
COOPER — List of Foreign Pro- and I hope I have done no dis-
testants, p. xxvi. honour to the English nation by
2 In his Literary Journal, De those French books printed be-
la Roche says : •' I was very yond sea, in which I undertook
young when I took refuge in to make our English learning
England, so that most of the better known to foreigners than
little learning I have got is of an it was before. I have said just
English growth. . . . 'Tis in this now that I took refuge in Eng-
country I have learned to have a land. When I consider the con-
right notion of religion, an ad- tinual fear I was in for a whole
CHAP. xiv. GRA VEROL OF NISMES. 251
Oxon, one of the masters of Westminster School, an
able philologist, the author of several learned works
on typography as well as theology; De Souligne,
grandson of Du Plessis Mornay (the Huguenot leader),
author of The Desolation of France demonstrated, The
Political Mischiefs of Popery, and other works ; John
Gagnier, the able Orientalist, professor of Oriental
languages at Oxford University, and the author of
many learned treatises on Rabbinical lore and kindred
subjects; John Cornaud de la Croze, author of The
Bibliotheque Universelle, The Works of the Learned,
and The History of Learning ; Abel Boyer, the an-
nalist, author of the well-known French and English
Dictionary, who pursued a successful literary career
in England for nearly forty years ; Mark Anthony de
la Bastide, author of several highly-esteemed contro-
versial works; and Graverol of Nismes, one of the
founders of the academy of that city, a poet and juris-
consult, who published in London a history of his
native place, addressed to " Messieurs les Refugie's de
Nismes qui sont dtablis dans Londres."
The last pages of Graverol's book contain a touching
narrative of the sufferings of the Protestants of Lan-
guedoc, and conclude as follows: — "We, who are in a
country so remote from our own only for the sake of
God's word, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ, let
us study to render our confession and our faith glorious
by discreet and modest conduct, by an exemplary life,
and by entire devotion to the service of God. Let us
ever bear in mind that we are the sons and the fathers
of martyrs. Let us never forget this glory, but strive
to transmit it to our posterity."
But the most eminent of the refugees were the
Huguenot Pastors, some of whom were men highly
distinguished for their piety, learning, and eloquence.
Such were Abbadie, considered one of the ablest de-
year, of being discovered and great difficulties I met with to
imprisoned to force me to abjure make my escape, I wonder I have
the Protestant religion, and the not been a stupid man ever since."
252 THE PASTOR ABBAD1E. CHAP. xiv.
fenders of Christianity in his day ; Saurin, one of the
most eloquent of preachers; Allix, the learned phi-
lologist and historian, and Delange, his colleague;
Pineton, author of Les Larmes de Chanibrun, charac-
terised by Michelet as " that beautiful but terrible
recital " ; Drelincourt, Marmet, and many more.
Jacques Abbadie was the scion of a distinguished
Bearnese family. After completing his studies at
Sedan and Saumur, he took his doctor's degree at the
age of seventeen. While still a young man, he was
invited to take charge of the French church in Berlin,
which he accepted ; and his reputation served to at-
tract large numbers of refugees to that city. His
Treatise on the Truth of the Christian Religion greatly
increased his fame, not only at Berlin, but in France,
and throughout Europe. Madame de SeVigne, though
rejoicing at the banishment of the Huguenots, spoke
of it in a high strain of panegyric, as the most divine
of all books : " I do not believe," she said, " that any
one ever spoke of religion like this man !" Even Bussy
Rabutin, who did not pass for a believer, said of the
book : " We are reading it now, and we think it the
only book in the world worth reading." A few years
later, Abbadie published his Treatise on the Divinity
of Jesus Christ. It is so entirely free from contro-
versial animus, that even the Roman Catholics of
France endeavoured to win him over to their faith.
But they deceived themselves. For, on the death of
the Elector, Abbadie, instead of returning to France,
accompanied his friend Marshal Schomberg to Holland,
and afterwards to England, in the capacity of chaplain.
He was with the marshal during his campaigns in
Ireland, and suffered the grief of seeing his benefactor
fall mortally wounded at the battle of the Boyne.
Returning to London, Abbadie became attached as
minister to the church of the Savoy, where crowds
flocked to hear him preach. While holding tins po-
sition, he wrote his Art of Knowing Ones-self, in
which he powerfully illustrated the relations of the
CHAP. xiv. SAURIN, THE GREAT PREACHES. 253
human conscience to the duties inculcated by the
Gospel. He also devoted his pen to the cause of
William III., and published his Defence of the British
Nation, in which he justified the deposition of James
II., and the Revolution of 1688, on the ground of
right and morality. In 1694 he was selected to
pronounce the funeral oration of Queen Mary, wife of
William III., — a sermon containing many passages of
great eloquence ; shortly after which he entered the
English Church, and was appointed to the deanery of
Killaloe, in which office he ended his days.
Jacques Saurin was the greatest of the Protestant
preachers. He was the son of an advocate at Nismes,
whose three sons all took refuge in England — Jacques,
the pulpit-orator ; Captain Saurin, an officer in
William's army ; and Louis, some time minister of
the French church in the Savoy, and afterwards Dean
of St. Patrick's, Ardagh.1 Jacques Saurin was, in the
early part of his life, tempted to the profession of
arms ; and when only seventeen years of age he served
as an ensign in the army of Savoy, under the Marquis
de Ruvigny, Earl of Gal way. Returning to his studies
at Geneva, he prepared himself for the ministry ; and
having proceeded to England in 1701, he was ap-
pointed one of the ministers of the French church in
Threadneedle Street. He held that office for four
years, after which he was called to the Hague, and
there developed that talent as a preacher for which
he became so distinguished. He was made minister-
extraordinary to the French community of nobles, and
held that office until his death.
Scarcely less distinguished was Peter Allix, for some
time pastor of the great Protestant church at Charen-
ton, near Paris, and afterwards of the Temple of the
French Hospital in Spitalfields, London. His style of
1 From him were lineally de- able William Saurin, Attorney -
scended the Right Reverend General for Ireland from 1807
James ISaurin, Bishop of Dro- to 1821.
more, and the Right Honour-
254 ALLIX AND PINETON. CHAP. xiv.
preaching was less ornate, but not less forcible, than
that of Saurin. His discourses were simple, clear, and
persuasive. The great object which he aimed at, was
the enforcement of union among Protestants. Louis
XIV. tried every means to induce him to enter the
Roman Catholic Church, and a pension was offered
him if, in that case, he would return to France. But
Allix resisted all such persuasions, and died in exile.
His erudition was recognised by the Universities of
Oxford and Cambridge, who conferred upon him the
degree of Doctor of Divinity; and, on the recom-
mendation of Bishop Burnet, he was made canon and
treasurer of Salisbury Cathedral. Allix left behind
him many published works, which in their time were
highly esteemed.
Jacques Pineton was another of the refugee pastors
who illustrated his faith by his life, which was pure
and beautiful. He had personally suffered more than
most of his brethren, and he lived to relate the story
of his trials in his touching narrative entitled Les
Larmes de Chambrun. He was pastor of a Protestant
church in the village of that name, situated near
Avignon, in the principality of Orange, when the
district was overrun by the troops of Louis XIV. The
dragonnade was even more furiously conducted there
than elsewhere, because of the hatred entertained by
the King towards the Protestant prince who took his
title from the little principality. The troops were
under the command of the Count of Tessd, a ferocious
and profane officer. Pineton was laid up at the time
by an attack of gout, the suffering from which was
aggravated by the recent fracture of a rib which he
had sustained. As he lay helpless on his couch, a
party of forty-two dragoons burst into his house,
entered his chamber, lit a number of candles, beat
their drums round his bed, and filled the room with
tobacco-smoke, so as almost to stifle him. They then
drank until they fell asleep and snored ; but theii
officers entering, roused them from their stupor by
CHAP. xiv. PHfJSTON'8 ESCAPE FROM FRANCE. 255
laying about amongst them with their canes. While
the men were asleep, Pinetou urged his wife to fly,
which she attempted to do ; but she was taken in the
act and brought before Tesse', who brutally told her
that she must regard herself as the property of the
regiment. She fell at his feet distracted, and would
have been lost, but that a priest to whom Pineton had
rendered some service, offered himself as surety for
her. The priest, however, made it a condition that
she and her husband should abjure their religion ; and
in a moment of agony and despair, both succumbed,
and agreed to conform to popery.
Remorse immediately followed, and they determined
to take the first opportunity to fly. Upon the plea
that Pineton, still in great pain, required surgical aid,
he obtained leave to proceed to Lyons. He was placed
in a litter, the slightest movement of which caused
him indescribable pain. When the people saw him
carried away, they wept, — Catholic as well as Protes-
tant. Even the dragoons were moved. The sufferer
reached Lyons, where he was soon cured and declared
convalescent. It appears that the frontier was less
stiictly guarded near Lyons ; and with the assistance
of a friend, Pineton shortly after contrived to escape
in the disguise of a general officer. He set out in
a carriage with four horses, attended by a train
of servants in handsome liveries. At the bridge of
Beauvoisin, where a picket of dragoons was posted, he
was allowed to cross without interruption, the soldiers
having previously been informed that " my lord " was
a great officer travelling express into Switzerland.
There was, however, still the frontier guard of the
Duke of Savoy to pass. It commanded the great road
across the Alps, and was maintained for the express
purpose of preventing the escape of Huguenots. By
the same bold address, and feigning great indignation
at the guard attempting to obstruct his passage,
Pineton was allowed to proceed, and shortly after he
reached Chambery. Next morning he entered the
256 ESCAPE OF MADAME PINETON. CHAP. xiv.
French gate of Geneva, giving expression to bis feel-
ings by singing the eighth verse of the twenty-sixth
Psalm, —
" Que j'aime ce saint lieu
Oil Tu parois, mon Dieu," etc.
Madame Pineton was less fortunate in her flight.
She set out for the Swiss frontier accompanied by
three ladies belonging to Lyons. The guides whom
they had hired and paid to conduct them, had the
barbarity to desert them in the mountains. It was
winter. They wandered and lost their way. They
were nine hours in the snow. They were driven away
from Cardon, and pursued along the Rhone. The
Lyons ladies, vanquished by cold, fatigue, and hunger,
wished to return to Lyons and give themselves up;
they could endure no longer. But Madame Pineton
hoped that by this time her husband had reached
Geneva; and she found courage for them all. She
would not listen to the proposal to go back ; she must
go forward ; arid the contest ended in their proceed-
ing, and arriving at last at Geneva, and there finding
safety and liberty. The pastor Pineton, after remain-
ing for a short time in that city, proceeded towards
Holland, where he was graciously received by the
Prince of Orange. Having been appointed one of the
Princess's chaplains, he accompanied Mary to London,
and was appointed a canon of Windsor. He did not,
however, live long to enjoy his dignity, for he died
in 1689, the year after his arrival in England ; though
he lived to give to the world the touching narrative
of his adventures and sufferings.
Many of the most distinguished of the French
pastors were admitted to degrees in the Universities
of Oxford and Cambridge ; and several, besides the
above, held benefices in the English Church. In 1682,
when the learned Samuel de 1' Angle was created D.D.
of Oxford without payment of the customary fees, he
was conducted into the House of Convocation by the
King's professor of divinity, and all the masters stood
CIIA p. xi v. HUG UEXO T CHUR CIIMEN $ DISSENTERS. 257
up to receive him. De 1'Angle had been the chief
preacher in the temple of Charenton, near Paris ; and
after thirty-five years of zealous work there, he fled
from France with his family, to end his days in
England. He was afterwards made prebendary of
Canterbury and Westminster. Peter Drelincourt, son
of the famous French divine, whose work on Death, l
has been translated into nearly all the languages of
Europe, was another refugee who entered the Church,
and became Dean of Armagh. Dr. Hans de Veille,
a man of great learning, having also entered the
Church, was made library-keeper at Lambeth Palace
by Dr. Tillotson. then Archbishop of Canterbury.
Though many of the most eminent French ministers
joined the Established Church of England, others
equally learned and able became preachers and pro-
fessors among the Dissenters. While Pierre du Moulin
was a prebendary of Canterbury, his brother Louis
was a stout Presbyterian. Charles Marie du Veil,
originally a Jew, was first converted to Roman Catho-
licism, next to Protestantism, and ended by becoming a
Baptist minister. But the most eminent of the refugees
who joined the Dissenters was the Reverend James
Capell, who had held the professorship of Hebrew in
the University of Saumur at the early age of nineteen.
He fled into England shortly after the Revocation, and
in 1708 he accepted a professor's chair at the Dissenters'
College in Hoxton Square. There he long continued
to teach the Oriental languages and their critical ap-
plication in the study of the Scriptures ; and he per-
formed his duties with such distinguished ability that
the institution came to enjoy a very high repute.
Many of the ablest ministers of the next generation,
Churchmen as well as Dissenters, studied under Mr.
Capell, and received from him their best education.
1 Les Consolations de I'Amt than forty times in France, and
fiddle centre les Frayeurs de la many times in England in its
Mart has been reprinted more translated form.
17
258 MTNTRTEJtR OF FRENCH CHURCHES. CHAP. xrv.
He held the office for fourteen years, and died at
eighty-three, the last of his family.
Of the ministersof the French churches in London, be-
sides those already named, the most distinguished were
the Reverend Charles Bertheau, minister of the French
church in Threadneedle Street, who officiated in that
capacity with great ability for a period of forty-six
years ; the Reverend Henri Chatelain,1 minister of the
French church in St. Martin's Lane ; the Reverend
Csesar Pegorier, minister of the Artillery and Taber-
nacle churches, and author of numerous controversial
works ; the Reverend Henri Rochblave, minister of the
refugee church at Greenwich, and afterwards of the
French Chapel-Royal, St. James's; the Reverend Daniel
Chamier, minister of the French church in Leicester-
fields ; and the Reverend Jean Graver ol, minister of
the French churches of Swallow Street and the Quarrd
— a voluminous and eloquent writer. The Reverend
Antoine Peres (formerly professor of Oriental languages
in the University of Montauban) and Ezekiel Marmet,
were ministers of other French churches, and were
greatly beloved, — Marmet's book of meditations on the
words of Job, " I know that my Redeemer liveth,"
being prized by devout readers of all persuasions.
The Reverend Claude de la Mothe and Jean Armand
du Bourdieu were ministers of the French church in the
Savoy, the principal West-end congregation, frequented
by the most distinguished of the refugees. Both these
ministers were eminent for their learning and their
eloquence. The former was of a noble Huguenot family
named Grostete. He studied law when a youth at
1 Henri Chatelain was the great- was zealous from the fifteenth
grandson of Simon Chatelain, of year of his age to the eighty-fifth,
Paris, the famous Protestant which was his last. He died in
manufacturer of gold and silver 1675, leaving more than eighty
lace. This lace was a much descendants, who all paid fines
prized article. It procured for for openly attending his funeral,
the steadfast Huguenot the tole- — AGNEW — French Protestant
ration of his religion, in which he Exile». 237.
CHAP. xiv. THE DU BOURDTEUS. 259
Orleans, his native city, where he took the degree of Doc-
tor of Civil Law. He was also a member of the Royal
Society of Berlin. He practised for some time at Paris
as an advocate, but subsequently left law for divinity,
and was appointed pastor of the church at Lisy in 1675.
At the Revocation he fled to England with his wife,
and was selected one of the ministers of the church in
the Savoy. He was the author of numerous works,
which enjoyed a high reputation in his day. He also
devoted much of his time to correspondence, with the
object of obtaining the release of Protestant martyrs
from the French galleys.
Jean Armand du Bourdieu, the colleague of De la
Mothe, though celebrated as a preacher, was still
more distinguished as an author. Like himself, his
father was a refugee divine, and preached in London
until his ninety-fifth year. Jean. Armand had been
pastor of a church at Montpelier, which he left at the
Revocation, and came over to England, followed by a
large number of his flock. He was chaplain to the
three dukes of Schomberg in succession, and was by
the old duke's side when he fell at the Boyne. In
1707 he preached a sermon in London, which was
afterwards published, wherein he alluded to Louis XIV.
as a Pharaoh to the oppressed Protestants of France.
The French king singled him out from the many
refugee preachers in England, and demanded, through
his minister, that he should be punished. Louis' com-
plaint was formally referred to the Bishao of London
— the French church in the Savoy being under his
jurisdiction, — and Du Bourdieu was summoned before
his Grace at Fulham Palace to answer the charge.
After reading and considering the memorial of the
French ambassador, the pastor was asked what he had
to say to it. He replied that " during the war he had,
after the example of several prelates and clergymen
of the Church of England, preached freely against the
common enemy and persecutor of the Church ; and the
greatest part of his sermons being printed with his
260 THE DU BOURDIEUS. CHAP. XT v.
name affixed, he was far from disowning them ; but
since the proclamation of the peace [of Utrecht], he had
not said anything that did in the least regard the
French king." No further steps were taken in the
matter.
Du Bourdieu continued indefatigably active on behalf
of his oppressed brethren in France during the re-
mainder of his life. His pen was seldom idle, and his
winged words flew abroad and kept alive the indig-
nation of the Protestant north against the persecutors
of his countrymen. In 1717 he published two works,
one " A Vindication of our Martyrs at the Galleys ; "
another, " A Comparison of the Penal Laws of France
against Protestants with those of England against
Papists ! " and, in the following year, " An Appeal to
the English Nation." He was now an old man of
seventy ; but his fire burned to the last. Two years
later he died, beloved and lamented by all who knew
him.1
There is little reason to doubt that the earnestness,
eloquence, and learning of this distinguished band of
exiles for conscience' sake exercised an influence, not
only on English religion and politics, but also on
English literature, which continues to operate to this
day.
1 A great-grandson of Du the French commandant, who
Bourdieu, Captain Saumarez Du- said, on presenting it : " My mis-
bourdieu, was an officer in the fortune is the lighter, as I am
British army at the capture of conquered by a Dubourdieu, a
Martinique from the French in beloved relative. My name is
.762. He received the sword of Dubourdieu 1 "
CHAPTER XV.
HUGUENOT SETTLEMENTS IN ENGLAND — MEN OF
INDUSTRY.
WE now come to the immigration and settlement in
England of Huguenot merchants, manufacturers, and
artizans, which exercised a still greater influence on
English industry than the immigration of French
literati and divines did upon English literature.
It is computed that about 100,000 French manu-
facturers and workmen fled into England in conse-
quence of the Revocation, besides those who took
refuge in Switzerland, Germany, and Holland. When
the Huguenot employers of labour shut up their works in
France and prepared to emigrate, their workmen usually
arranged to follow them. Protestant masters and men
converted what they could into money, and made for
the coast, accompanied by their families. The paper-
makers of Angoumois left their mills ; the silk-makers
of Touraine left their looms ; the tanners of Normandy
left their pits ; the vine-dressers and farmers of Saint-
onge, Poitou, and La Rochelle, left their vineyards,
their farms, and their gardens, and looked into the
wide world, seawards, for a new home and refuge,
where they might work and worship in peace.
The principal immigration into England was from
Normandy and Brittany.1 Upwards of 10,000 of the
1 FLOQUET, the accredited his- vicinity of the sea, and of their
torian of Normandy (Histoircdu connection with England and
Parlement de Normandic), cal- Holland, to abandon their coun-
culates that not less than 184,000 try.
Protestants took advantage of the
262 FLIGHT OF MASTERS AND MEN. CHAP. xv.
industrial class left Rouen; and several thousand
persons, principally engaged in the maritime trade,
set out from Caen, leaving that city to solitude and
poverty. The whole Protestant population of Cou-
tances emigrated, and the fine linen manufactures of
the place were at once extinguished. There was a
similar flight of masters and men from Elboeuf,
Alenc.on, Caudebec, Havre, and other northern towns.
The makers of noyal and white linen cloths, for which
a ready market had been obtained abroad, left Nantes,
Rennes, and Morlaix in Brittany, and Le Mans and
Laval in Maine, and went over to England to carry
on their manufactures there. The provinces further
north, also largely contributed to swell the stream of
emigration into England : the cloth-makers departed
from Amiens, Abbeville, and Doullens; the gauze-
makers and lace-makers from Lille and Valenciennes ;
and artizans of all kinds from the various towns and
cities of the interior.
Notwithstanding the precautions taken by the
French government, and the penalty of death or
condemnation to the galleys for life, to which people
were subject who were taken in the act of flight, the
emigration could not be stopped. The fugitives were
helped on their way by their fellow-Protestants, and
often by Roman Catholics themselves, who pitied their
sad fate. The fugitives lay concealed in barns and
farmyards by day, and travelled by night towards the
coast. There the maritime population, many of whom
were Protestants like themselves, actively connived at
their escape. France presented too wide a reach ot
sea-frontier, extending from Bayonne to Calais, to be
effectively watched by any coast-guards ; and not only
the French, but the English and Dutch merchant-
ships, which hovered about the coast waiting for the
agreed signal to put in and take on board their freight
of fugitives, had comparatively little difficulty in
carrying them off in safety.
Of those fugitives who succeeded in making good
CHAP. xv. RELIEF OF THE REFUGEES. 263
their escape, the richest took refuge in Holland ; while
the bulk of those who settled in England were persons
of comparatively small means. Yet a considerable
sum of ready-money must have been brought over by
the refugees, as we find the French ambassador writing
to Louis XIV. in 1687, that as much as 960,000 louis
dor had already been sent to the Mint for conversion
into English money.1 This was, however, the property
of a comparatively small number of wealthy families ;
fo: the greater proportion of those who landed in
England were all but destitute.
Prompt steps were taken for the relief of the poorer
immigrants. Collections were made in the churches ;
public subscriptions were raised ; and Parliament voted
2onsiderable sums from the public purse. Thus a fund
of nearly £200,000 was collected and invested for the
benefit of the refugees, — the annual interest, about
£15,000, being intrusted to a committee for distribu-
tion among the most necessitous ; while about £2000
a year was applied towards the support of the poor
French ministers and their respective churches. The
pressure on the relief fund was of course greatest in
those years immediately following the Revocation of
the Edict of Nantes, before the destitute foreigners had
been able to maintain themselves by their respective
callings. There was also a large number of destitute
landed gentry, professional men, and pastors, to whom
the earning of a livelihood was extremely difficult;
and these also had to be relieved out of the fund.
From the first report of the French Relief Committee,
dated December, 1687 — that is, only fourteen months
after the Revocation — it appears that 15,500 refugees
had been relieved in the course of the year. "Of
these," says Weiss, "13,050 were settled in London,
1 MACPHERSON says, " I have another, they brought £60 each
seen a computation, at the low- in money or effects, whereby
est supposition, of only 50,000 of they added three millions ster-
those people coming to Great ling to the wealth of Britain."
Britain, and that, one with — Annals of Commerce, ii. 617.
264 HELP GIVEN TO THE POORER EXILES. CHAP. xv.
and 2000 in the different seaport towns where they
had disembarked. Amongst them the committee dis-
tinguishes 140 persons of quality with their families ;
143 ministers; 144 lawyers, physicians, traders, and
burghers. It designates the others under the general
denomination of artizans and workmen. The persois
of quality received weekly assistance in money through-
out the whole of that year. Their sons were placed in
the best commercial houses. About 150 of them aa-
tered the army, and were provided, at the cost of the
committee, with a complete outfit. The ministers ob-
tained for themselves and their families pensions whiih
were regularly paid. Their sons found employment In
the houses of rich merchants or of persons of quality.
Weekly assistance was 'granted to the sick, and tc
those whose great age prevented them earning their
living by labour. The greater part of the artizans and
workmen were employed in the English manufactories.
The committee supplied them with the necessary im-
plements and tools, and provided, at the same time, for
their other wants. Six hundred of them, for whom it
could not find employment in England, were sent at its
cost to America. Fifteen French churches were also
erected out of the proceeds of the national subscription,
— three in London, and twelve in the vaiious counties
where the greater number of the refugees had settled." 1
The help thus generously given to the distressed
refugees by the nation, was very shortly rendered
unnecessary through the vigorous efforts which they
made to help themselves. They sought about in all
directions for employment; and being ingenious, in-
telligent, and industrious, they gradually succeeded in
obtaining it. French workpeople are better econo-
mists than the English, and less sufficed for their
wants. They were satisfied if they could keep a roof
over their heads, a clean fireside, and the pot-au-feu
going. What English artizans despised as food they
1 WEISS — History of the French Protestant Refugees, p. 224.
CHAP. xv. ORIGINATORS OF HENEFIT SOCIETIES. 265
could make a meal of. For they brought with them
from France the art of cooking — the art of economising
nutriment and at the same time presenting it in the
most savoury forms — an art almost entirely unknown
even at this day in the homes of English workmen,
and the want of which occasions enormous national
loss. Before the arrival of the refugees, the London
butchers sold their bullocks' hides to the fellmongers
always with the tails on. The tails were thrown
away and wasted. Who could ever dream of eating
oxen's tails ? The refugees profited by the delusion.
They obtained the tails, enriched their pots-au-feu
with them, and revelled in the now well-known deli-
cacy of ox-tail soup.
The refugees were also very helpful of one another.
The richer helped the poorer, and the poorer helped
each other. The Marquis de Ruvigny kept almost open
house, and was equally ready to open his purse to his
distressed countrymen. Those who had the means of
starting manufactories and workshops, employed as
many hands as they could; and such of the men as
earned wages, helped to support those who remained
unemployed. Being of foreign birth, and having no
claim upon the poor-rates, the French artizans formed
themselves into societies for mutual relief in sick-
ness and old age. These were the first societies of
the kind established by workmen in England, though
they have since been largely imitated;1 and the Odd-
fellows, Foresters, and numerous other benefit societies
of the labouring class, though they may not know it,
1 One of the oldest of the French mostly bearing French names;
benefit societies was the " Nor- but at length the foreign element
man Society " of Bethnal Green, became so mixed with the English
which only ceased to exist in that it almost ceased to be recog-
1863, after a life of upwards of nisable, and the society may be
150 years. Down to the year said to have died out with the
1800, the whole of the society's absorption of the distinctive class
accounts were kept in French, for whose benefit it was originally
the members being the descen- instituted,
dants of French Protestants,
266 REFUGEE ARTIZANS IN LONDON. CHAP. XV
are but following in the path long since chalked out for
them by the French refugees.
The working-class immigrants very soon settled
down to the practice of their respective callings in
different parts of the country. A large proportion of
them settled in London, and several districts of the
metropolis were almost entirely occupied by them.
Spitalfields, Bethnal Green, and Soho were the princi-
pal French quarters, where French was spoken in the
workshops, in the schools and churches, and in the
streets. But the immigrants also distributed them-
selves in other districts: many of them settled in
Aldgate, Bishopsgate, Shoreditch, and the quarters ad-
joining Thames Street. A little colony of them settled
in one of the streets leading from Broad Street to the
Guildhall, which came to be called " Petty France,"
from the number of French who inhabited it. Others
settled in Long Acre, the Seven Dials, and the
neighbourhood of Temple Bar. Le Mann, the famous
biscuit maker, opened his shop and flourished near the
Royal Exchange. Some opened shops for the manu-
facture and sale of cutlery and mathematical and sur-
gical instruments, in the Strand; while others began
the making of watches, the fabrication of articles in
gold and silver, and the cutting and mounting of
jewellery, in which the French artizans were then
admitted to be the most expert in Europe.
France had long been the leader of fashion, and all
the world bought dress and articles of virtu at Paris.
Colbert was accustomed to say that the Fashions were
worth more to France than the mines of Peru were to
Spain. Only articles of French manufacture, with a
French name, could find purchasers amongst people of
fashion in London. " The fondness of the nation for
French Commodities was such," says Joshua Gee, "that
it was a very hard matter to bring them into love with
those made at home."1 Goods to the amount of above
1 JOSHUA GEE — The Trade and Navigation of Great Britain con-
tidercd.
CHAP xv. FRENCH MANUFACTURES IN ENGLAND. 267
two and a half millions sterling were annually im-
ported from France, whereas the value of English goods
exported thither did not amount to a million.
The principal articles imported from France previous
to the Revocation, were velvets and satins from Lyons;
silks and taffetas from Tours ; silk ribands, galloons,
laces, gloves, and buttons from Paris and Rouen ; serges
from Chalons, Rheims, Amiens, and various towns in
Picardy ; beaver and felt hats from Paris, Rouen, and
Lyons ; paper of all sorts from Auvergne, Poitou,
Limousin, Champagne, Normandy ; ironmongery and
cutlery from Forrests, Auvergne ; linen cloth from
Brittany and Normandy; salt from Rochelle and Oleron,
Isle of Rhe'; wines from Gascony, Nantes, and Bordeaux;
and feathers, fans, girdles, pins, needles, combs, soap,
aqua-vitie, vinegar, and various sorts of household
stuffs, from different parts of France.
So soon, however, as the French artizans had settled
in London, they proceeded to establish and carry on
the same manufactures which they had worked at
abroad ; and a large portion of the stream of gold which
before had flowed into France, now flowed into Eng-
land. They introduced all the manufactures connected
with the fashions, so that English customers became
supplied with French-made articles, without requiring
to send abroad money to buy them ; while the refugees
obtained a ready sale for all the goods which they could
make, at remunerative prices. " Nay," says a writer of
the time, " the English have now so great an esteem
for the workmanship of the French refugees, that
hardly anything vends without a Gallic name."1 The
French beavers, which had before been imported from
Caudebec in France, were now made in the borough of
Southwark and at Wandsworth, where several hat-
makers began their operations on a considerable scale.2
1 History of the Trade in Eng- brought into England by the re-
land ' : London, 1702. fugees. In France it had been
2 Hat-making was one of the almost entirely in the haitds of
most important manufactures the Protestants. They alone
268 MANUFACTURE OF SILK CHAP. xv.
Others introduced the manufacture of buttons, of wool,
silk, and metal, which before had been made almost
exclusively in France. The printing of calicoes was
introduced by a refugee, who established a manufac-
tory for the purpose near Richmond. Other print-
works were started at Bromley in Essex, from whence
the manufacture was afterwards removed into Lanca-
shire. A French refugee, named Passavant, purchased
the tapestry-manufactory at Fulham, originally estab-
lished by the Walloons, which had fallen into decay.
His first attempts at reviving the manufacture not
having proved successful, he removed the works to
Exeter, where he established them prosperously, with
the assistance of some workmen whom he obtained from
the Gobelins at Paris.
But the most important branch of manufacture to
which the refugees devoted themselves, and in which
they achieved both fame and wealth, was the silk
manufacture in all its branches. The silk fabrics of
France — its satins, brocades, velvets, paduasoys, figured
and plain — were celebrated throughout the world, and
were eagerly purchased. As much as 200,000 livres
worth of black lustrings were annually bought by the
English. They were made expressly for their market,
and were known as " English tafFeties." Shortly after
the Revocation, not only was the whole of this fabric
made in England, but large quantities were manufac-
tured for foreign exportation.
The English government had long envied France
her possession of the silk manufacture, which gave em-
ployment to a large number of people, and was a source
possessed the secret of the liquid which was lost to France for
composition which serves to pre- about forty years. During this
pare rabbit, hare, and beaver period, the French nobility, and
skins. They alone supplied Eng- all persons making pretensions
land and Holland with fine hats, to dress, wore none but English
principally from Caudebec. After hats. Even the Roman cardinals
the Revocation, most of the hat- got their hats from the celebrated
makers went to London, and took manufactory at Wandsworth, es-
with them the secret of their art, tablished by the refugees I
CHAP. xv. ROTAL LUSTRING COMPANY. 269
of much wealth to the country. An attempt was
made in the reign of Elizabeth to introduce the manu-
facture in England, and it was repeated in the reign of
James I. The corporation of the city of London also
encouraged the manufacture. We find from their re-
cords, that, in 1609, they admitted to the freedom of
the city one Robert Therie or Thierry, on account of
his skill and invention ; and as " being the first in
England who hath made stuffes of silk, the which was
made by the silkworm nourished here in England."
One M. Brumelach was also invited over from France,
with sundry silk throwsters, weavers, and dyers, and
a beginning was made in the manufacture ; but it
was not until the influx of Protestant refugees after
the Revocation, that the silk manufacture took root
and began to flourish.
The workmen of Tours and Lyons brought with
them the arts which had raised the manufactures of
France to such a height of prosperity. They erected
their looms in Spitalfields, and there practised their
modes of weaving, — turning out large quantities of
lustrings, velvets, and mingled stuffs of silk and wool,
of such excellence as to insure for them a ready sale
everywhere. Weiss says that the figured silks which
proceeded from the London manufactories were due
almost exclusively to the skill and industry of three
refugees — Lanson, Mariscot, and Monceaux. The artist
who supplied the designs was another refugee, named
Beaudoin. A common workman named Mongeorge
brought them the secret, recently discovered at Lyons,
of giving lustre to silk taffety ; and Spitalfields
thenceforward enjoyed a large share of the trade for
which Lyons had been so famous.
To protect the English manufactures, the import
duties on French silks were at first trebled. In 1692,
five years after the Revocation, the manufacturers of
lustrings and alamode silks were incorporated by
charter under the name of the Royal Lustring Com-
pany; shortly after which they obtained from Parlia-
270 REV. W. LEES MACHINES. CHAP. xv.
ment an Act entirely prohibiting the importation of
foreign goods of like sorts. Strange to say, one of the
grounds on which they claimed this degree of protec-
tion was, that the manufacture of these articles in
England had now reached a greater degree of per-
fection than was attained by foreigners, — a reason
which ought to have rendered them independent of
all legislative interference in their favour. Certain
it is, however, that by the end of the century the
French manufacturers in England were not only able
to supply the whole of the English demand, but to
export considerable quantities of their goods to those
countries which France had formerly supplied.
One of the most remunerative branches of business
was the manufacture of silk stockings, which the Eng-
lish then shared with the French artizans. This trade
was due to the invention of the stocking-frame by
William Lee, M.A., about the year 1600. Not being
able to find any encouragement for his invention in
England, he went over to Rouen in 1605, on the invi-
tation of the French minister Sully, — to instruct the
French operatives in the construction and working of
the machine. Nine of the frames were in full work,
and Lee enjoyed a prospect of honour and competency,
when, unhappily for him, his protector, Henry IV., was
assassinated by the fanatic Ravaillac. The patronage
which had been extended to him was at once with-
drawn, on which Lee proceeded to Paris to press his
claims upon the government. But he had the misfor-
tune to be a foreigner, and, worst of all, a Protestant.
His claims were therefore disregarded, and he shortly
after died at Paris in extreme distress.
Two of Lee's machines were left at Rouen ; the rest
were brought over to England ; and in course of time,
considerable improvements were made in the inven-
tion. The stocking-trade became so considerable a
branch of business, that in 1654 we find the frame-
work-knitters petitioning Oliver Cromwell to grant
them a charter of incorporation. The Protector did
CHAP. xv. GLASS-MAKING. 271
not confer upon them the monopoly of manufacture
which they sought. Accordingly, when the French
refugees settled amongst us, they were as free to make
use of Lee's invention as the English themselves were.
Hence the manufacture of silk hosiery by the stocking-
frame, soon became a leading branch of trade in
Spitalfields, and English hose were in demand all
over Europe. Keysler, the traveller, writing as late as
1730, remarks that "at Naples, when a tradesman
would highly recommend his silk stockings, he in-
variably protests that they are right English."
In a petition presented to Parliament by the
weavers' company in 1713, it was stated that owing
to the encouragement afforded by the Crown and by
divers Acts of the legislature, the silk manufacture at
that time was twenty times greater in amount than it
had been in 16G4 ; that all sorts of black and coloured
silks, gold and silver stuffs, and ribands were made
here as good as those of French fabric ; that black silk
for hoods and scarfs, which, twenty-five years before,
was all imported, was now made here to the annual
value of £300,000, whereby a great increase had been
occasioned in the exportation of woollen and other
manufactured goods to Turkey and Italy, whence the
raw silk was imported. Such, amongst others, were
the effects of the settlement in London of the French
refugee artizans.
Although the manufacture of glass had been intro-
duced into England before the arrival of the French
artizans, it made comparatively small progress until
they took it in hand. Mr. Pellatt, in his lecture on
the manufacture of glass, delivered before the Royal
Institution, attributed the establishment of the manu-
facture to the Huguenot refugees, — most of the technical
terms still used in glass-making being derived from
the French. Thus, the " found " is the melting of the
materials into glass, from the French word fondre.
The " siege " is the place or seat in which the crucible
stands. The " kinney " is the corner of the furnace,
272 PAPER-VAKIXti. CHAP. xv.
probably from coin or chemintfe. The "journey,"
denoting the time of making glass from the beginning
of the "found," is obviously fromjourntfe. The "fou-
shart," or fork used to move the sheet of glass into the
annealing-kiln, is from fourchette, The " marmre " is
the slab, formerly of marble, but now of iron, on which
the ball of hot glass is rolled. And so on with " cullet "
(coule — glass run off, or broken glass), " pontil "
(pointfo) ; and other words obviously of French and
Flemish origin.
The Parisian glass-makers were especially celebrated
for the skill with which they cast large plates for
mirrors ; and, shortly after the Revocation, when a
large number of these valuable workmen took refuge
in England, a branch of that manufacture was estab-
lished by Abraham Thavenart, which proved highly
successful. Other works were started for the making
of crystal, in which the French greatly excelled ; and
before long, not only were they able to supply the
home market, but to export large quantities of glass of
the best sorts to Holland and other European countries.
For the improvement of English paper, also, we
are largely indebted to the refugees — to the master
manufacturers and their artizans who swarmed over to
England from the paper-mills of Angoumois. Before
the Revocation, the paper made in this country was
of the common " whitey-brown " sort — coarse and
inelegant. All the best sorts were imported from
abroad, mostly from France. But soon after the
Revocation, the import of paper ceased, and the refu-
gees were able to supply us with as good an article
as could be bought elsewhere. The first manufactory
for fine paper was established by the refugees in
London in 1685 ; but other mills were shortly after
begun by them in Kent, at Maidstone and along the
Darent, as well as in other parts of England.1 That
1 The Patent Office Records French exiles in the province of
clearly show the activity of the invention, by the numerous p.i-
CHAP. xv. THE DE PORTALS. 273
the leading workmen employed in the first fine-paper
mills were French and Flemish is shown by the dis-
tinctive terms of the trade still in use. Thus, in
Kent, the man who lays the sheets on the felts is the
coucher ; the fateman, or vatman, is the Flemish f ass-
man ; and the room where the finishing operations are
performed is still called the satte.
One of the most distinguished of the refugee paper-
manufacturers, was Henry de Portal. The Portals
were an ancient and noble family in the South of
France, of Albigeois descent, who stood firm by the
faith of their fathers. Several of them suffered
death rather than recant. Toulouse was for many
generations the home of the Portals, where they held
and exercised the highest local authority. Several
of them in succession were elected "Capitoul," a
position of great dignity and power in that city.
When the persecution of the Albigeois set in, the De
Portals put themselves at their head ; but they were
unable to stand against the tremendous power of the
Inquisition. They fled from Toulouse in different
directions — some to Nismes, and others into the neigh-
bourhood of Bordeaux. Some of them perished in the
massacres which occurred throughout France subse-
quent to the night of Saint Bartholomew at Paris;
and they continued to suffer during the century that
ended in the Revocation; yet still they remained
constant to their faith.
When the reign of terror began in the South of
France, under Louis XVI., Louis de Portal was residing
tents taken out by them for de Grouchy, J. de May, and R.
printing, spinning, weaving, Shales, taking out a patent for
paper-making, and other arts. making writing and printing
Such names as Blondeau, Dupin, paper, having " lately brought
De Cardonels, Le Blon, Ducleu, out of France excellent workmen
Pousset, Gastineau, Couran, Paul, and already set up several new-
etc., are found constantly re- invented mills and engines for
curring in the lists of patentees making thereof, not heretofore
for many years subsequent to the used in England." — [See Abridg-
Revocation. In 1686 we find M. ment of Specifications relating to
Dupin, A. de Cardonels, C. R. M. Printing, p. 82.]
18
274 THE DE PORTALS. CHAP. xv.
at his Chateau de la Portalerie, seven leagues from
Bordeaux. To escape the horrors of the dragonnades,
he set out with his wife and five children to take
refuge on his estate in the Cevennes. The dragoons
pursued the family to their retreat, overtook them, and
cut down the father, mother, and one of the children.
They also burnt to the ground the house in which
they had taken refuge. The remaining four children
concealed themselves in an oven outside the building,
and were thus saved.
The four orphans — three boys and a girl — immedi-
ately determined to make for the coast and escape
from France by sea. After a long and perilous journey
on foot — exhausted by fatigue and wanting food — they
at length reached Montauban, where little Pierre, the
youngest, fell down fainting with hunger at the door of
a baker's shop. The humane baker took up the child,
carried him into the house, and fed and cherished
him. The other three — Henry, William, and Mary de
Portal — though grieving to leave their brother behind
them, again set out on foot, and pressed onward to
Bordeaux.
They were so fortunate as to secure a passage by a
merchant- vessel, on board of which they were shipped,
concealed in barrels. They were among the last of
the refugees who escaped, previous to the issue of the
infamous order to fumigate all departing vessels, so as to
stifle any Protestant fugitives who might be concealed
in the cargo. The youthful refugees reached Holland,
where they found friends and foster-parents, and were
shortly in a position to assert the dignity of their
birth. Miss Portal succeeded in obtaining a situation
as governess in the family of the Countess of Finken-
stein. She afterwards married M. Lenormant, a refugee
settled at Amsterdam ; while Henry and William fol-
lowed the fortunes of the Prince of Orange, accom-
panied him into England, and established the family of
De Portal in this country. l
1 William entered the church late in life. He was nominated
CHAP. xv. THE DE PORTALS. 275
Henry, the elder brother, having learnt the art of
paper-making, started a mill of his own at Laverstoke
on the Itchin, near Whitchurch in Hampshire, where
he achieved high reputation as a paper-manufacturer.
He carried on his business with great spirit, gather-
ing round him the best French and Dutch workmen.
He shortly brought his work to so high a degree of
perfection, that the Bank of England gave him the
privilege, which a descendant of the family still enjoys,
of supplying them with the paper for bank-notes.
Henry de Portal had resolved to rebuild the fortunes
of his house on English ground ; and he did it nobly
by his skill, his integrity, and his industry.
The De Portals of Freefolk Priors re-established
themselves among the aristocratic order to which
they originally belonged ; and their sons and daughters
formed alliances with some of the noblest families in
England. The youngest brother, Pierre de Portal,
who had been left fainting at the door of the baker
at Montauban, was brought up to manhood by the
baker, held to his Protestantism, and eventually set
up as a cloth-manufacturer in France. He prospered,
married, and his sons grew up around him, one of them
eventually becoming lord of Penardieres. His grandson
Alberedes, also faithful to the creed of his fathers, rose
to high office, having been appointed minister of
marine and the colonies, councillor of state, and a peer
of France, at the restoration of the Bourbons. The
present baron, Pierre Paul Frederick de Portal, main-
tains the ancient reputation of the family; and to his
highly interesting work, entitled Les Descendants des
Albigeois et des Huguenots, ou Mrfmoires de la Famille
de Portal (Paris 18GO), we are mainly indebted for the
above facts relating to the family.
"Various other branches of manufacture were either
tutor to Prince George, after- ham Portal, whose poetical works
wards George III., and held the were published in 1781, was hia
livings of Clowne in Derbyshire, grandson,
and Farnbridge in Essex. Abra-
276 OTHER MANUFACTURES ESTABLISHED. CHAP. xv.
established or greatly improved by the refugees. At
Canterbury they swelled the ranks of the silk-manu-
facturers; so much so, that in 1694 they possessed
1000 looms, giving employment to nearly 3000 work-
men,— though, for the convenience of the trade, the
greater number of them subsequently removed to
Spitalfields. Many of the immigrants also found their
way to Norwich, where they carried on with great
success the manufacture of lustrings, brocades, padua-
soys, tabinets, and velvets ; while others carried on the
making of cutlery, clocks, and watches. The fifty
years that followed the settlement of the French
refugees in Norwich, formed the most prosperous
period in the history of that city. Another body of
refugees settled at Ipswich in 1681, where they began
the manufacture of fine linen, before then imported
from France. The elders and deacons of the French
church in Threadneedle Street raised the necessary
funds for their support until they could maintain
themselves by their industry. They were organised
and superintended by a refugee from Paris named
Bonhomme,1 one of the most skilled manufacturers in
France. To the manufacture of linen, another of sail-
cloth was added, and England was enabled entirely to
dispense with any further supply of the foreign-made
article.
The lace-manufacture, introduced originally by the
Walloon refugees, was also increased and improved by
the influx of Huguenot lace-makers, principally from
Burgundy and Normandy. Some established them-
selves in London, while others betook themselves to the
adjoining counties — settling at Buckingham, Newport-
Pagnel, and Stony Stratford, from whence the manu-
1 In 1681, Savil wrote from " This man will be able to give
Paris to Jenkins, then Secretary you some lights into the method
of State, to announce the ap- of bringing the manufacture of
preaching departure of Bon- sail-cloth in England."
homme and all his family, adding,
CHAP. xv. MANUFACTURES IN SCOTLAND. 277
facture extended into Oxford, Northampton, Cambridge,
and the adjoining counties.
Some of the exiles went as far north as Scotland,
and settled there. Thus, a colony of weavers from
Picardy, in France, began the manufacture of linen in
a suburb of Edinburgh near the head of Leith Walk,
long after known as " Little Picardy," — the name still
surviving in Picardy Place. Others of them built a
silk-factory, and laid out a mulberry plantation on the
slope of Moultrie Hill, then an open common. The
refugees were sufficiently numerous in Edinburgh to
form a church, of which the Rev. Mr. Dupont was
appointed minister; and William III., in 1693, granted
to the city a duty of two pennies on each pint of ale,
out of which 2000 marks were to be paid yearly to-
wards the maintenance of the ministers of the French
congregation. At Glasgow, one of the refugees succeeded
in establishing a paper-mill, the first in that part of
Scotland. The Huguenot who erected it escaped from
France accompanied only by his little daughter. For
some time after his arrival in Glasgow, he maintained
himself by picking up rags in the streets. But, by
dint of thrift and diligence, he eventually contrived to
accumulate sufficient means to enable him to start his
paper-mill, and thus to lay the foundation of an impor-
tant branch of Scottish industry.
In short, there was scarcely a branch of trade in
Great Britain, but at once felt the beneficial effects of
the large influx of experienced workmen from France.
Besides improving those manufactures which had al-
ready been established, they introduced many entirely
new branches of industry; and by their skill, their
intelligence, and their laboriousness, they richly repaid
England for the hospitality and the asylum which had
been so generously extended to them in their time of
need.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE HUGUENOT CHURCHES IN ENGLAND.
THE vast number of French Protestants who fled into
England on the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, led
to a large increase in the number of French churches.
This was especially the case in London, which was the
principal seat of the immigration. It may serve to
give the reader an idea of the large admixture of
Huguenot blood in the London population, when we
state that about the beginning of last century, at which
time the population of the metropolis was not one-
fourth of what it is now, there were no fewer than
thirty-five French churches in London and the sub-
urbs. Of these, eleven were in Spitalfields, showing
the preponderance of the French settlers in that
quarter.
The French church in Threadneedle Street, the
oldest in London, was in a measure the cathedral
church of the Huguenots. Thither the refugees usually
repaired on their arrival in London, and such of them
as had been compelled to abj ure their faith, in order to
avoid the penalty of death or condemnation to the gal-
leys, there made acknowledgment of their repentance,
and were again received into membership. During
the years immediately following the Revocation, the
consistory of the French church met at least once
every week in Threadneedle Street chapel, for the
purpose of receiving such acknowledgments or " re-
connaissances." The ministers heard the narratives of
the trials of the refugees, examined their testimony,
CHAP. XVT. HUGUENOT CHURCHES IN LONDON. 279
and, when judged worthy, received them into com-
munion. At the sitting of the 5th of March, 1686,
tifty fugitives from various provinces of France ab-
jured the Roman Catholic religion, to which they had
pretended to be converted ; and at one of the sittings
in May, 1687, not fewer than 497 members were again
received into the church which they had, under the
force of terror, pretended to abandon.
While the church in Threadneedle Street was thus
resorted to by the Huguenot Calvinists, the French
Episcopal church in the Savoy, opened about the year
1641, was similarly resorted to by the foreign Protes-
tants of the Lutheran persuasion. This was the
fashionable French church of the West-end, and was
resorted to by many of the nobility, who were attracted
by the eloquence of the preachers who usually minis-
tered there ; amongst whom we recognise the great
names of Durrel, Severin, Abbadie, Saurin, Dubourdieu,
Majendie, and Durand. There were also the following
French churches in the western parts of London : — The
chapel of Marylebone, founded about the year 1656;
the chapel in Somerset House, originally granted by
Charles I. to his queen Henrietta as a Roman Catholic
place of worship, but which was afterwards appropri-
ated by Parliament, in 1653, for the use of the French
Protestants ; Castle Street Chapel in Leicester Square,
erected at the expense of the government in 1672 as a
place of worship for the refugees; the Little Savoy
Chapel in the Strand, granted for the same purpose in
1675 ; and Hungerford Chapel in Hungerford Market,
which was opened as a French church in 1687.
After the Re volution of 1688, a considerable addition
was made to the French churches at the West-end.
Thus, three new congregations were formed in the
year 1689, — those of La Patente, in Soho, first opened
in Berwick Street, from whence it was afterwards
removed to Little Chapel Street, Wardour Street;
Glasshouse Street Chapel, Golden Square, from whence
it was afterwards removed to Leicester Fields ; and La
280 HUGUENOT CHURCHES IN LONDON. CHAP. xvi.
Quarre' (episcopal) Chapel, originally of Berwick Street,
and afterwards of Little Dean Street, Westminster.
Another important French church at the West-end
was that of Swallow Street, Piccadilly.1 The congre-
gation had originally worshipped in the French am-
bassador's chapel in Monmouth House, Soho Square;
from whence they removed to Swallow Street in 1690.
From the records of the church, which are preserved at
Somerset House, it would appear that Swallow Street
was in the west, what Threadneedle Street Church was
in the east of London, — the place first resorted to by
the refugee Protestants to make acknowledgment of
their blackslidings, and to claim re-admission to church
membership. Hence the numerous " reconnaissances "
found recorded in the Swallow Street register.
About the year 1700, there was another large in-
crease in the number of French churches in London,
six more being added to those already specified —
namely, L'Eglise du Tabernacle, afterwards removed to
Leicester Fields Chapel ; the French Chapel Royal, St.
James's ; Les Grecs, in Hog Lane, now Crown Street,
Soho; Spring Gardens Chapel, or the Little Savoy;
La Charenton, in Grafton Street, Newport Market;
and La Tremblade, or West Street Chapel, St Giles's.
About the same date, additional church accommodation
was provided for the refugees in the city ; one chapel
having been opened in Blackfriars, and another in St.
Martin's Lane, of which the celebrated Dr. Allix was
pastor. With the latter chapel, known as the church
of St. Martin Ongars, that of Threadneedle Street was
eventually united.
But the principal increase in the French churches
about that time was in the eastern parts of London,
where the refugees of the manufacturing class had
for the most part settled. The large influx of foreign
Protestants is strikingly shown by the amount of new
1 The chapel was sold to Dr. James Anderson in 1710, and is now
used as a Scotch church.
CHAP. xvi. CHURCHES IX SPITALFIELDS. 281
chapels required for their accommodation. Thus, in
Spitalfields and the adjoining districts, wo find the
following : — L'Eglise de St. Jean, Swan Fields, Shore-
ditch (1687); La Nouvelle Patente, Crispin Street,
Spitalfields (1689); L'Eglise de 1'Artillerie, Artillery
Street, Bishopsgate (1691) ; L'Eglise de Crispin Street,
Spitalfields (1693) ; Petticoat Lane Chapel, Spitaltields
(1694) ; L'Eglise de Perle Street, Spitalfields (1697),
afterwards incorporated with Crispin Street Chapel;
the French Church of Wapping (1700) ; L'Eglise de
Bell Lane, Spitalfields (1700); L'Eglise de Wheler
Street, Spitalfields (1703), afterwards incorporated with
La Nouvelle Patente ; L'Eglise de Swan Fields, Slaugh-
ter Street, Shoreditch (1721); L'Eglise de l'H6pital,
afterwards L'Eglise Neuve, Church Street, Spitalfields
(1742). Here we have no fewer than eleven French
churches opened east of Bishopsgate Street, providing
accommodation for a very large number of worship-
pers. The church last named, L'Eglise Neuve, was
probably the largest of the French places of worship
in London, being capable of accommodating about
1500 persons. It is now used as a chapel by the
Wesleyan Methodists ; while the adjoining church of
the Artillery is used as a poor Jews' synagogue.
In addition to the French churches in the city, at
the West-end, and in the Spitalfields district, there
were several thriving congregations in the suburban
districts of London in which the refugees had settled.
One of the oldest of these was that of Wands worth,
where a colony of Protestant Walloons settled about
the year 1570. Having formed themselves into a con-
gregation, they erected a chapel, for worship, which is
still standing, nearly opposite the parish church. The
building bears this inscription on its front : — " Erected
1573— enlarged 1685— repaired 1809, 1831." Like the
other refugee churches, it has ceased to retain its
distinctive character, being now used as a Congrega-
tional chapel. The Huguenots had also a special
burying-ground at Wandsworth, called " Mount Nod "
282 HUGUENOT CHURCHES NEAR LONDON. CHAP. xn.
It is situated on East Hill ; and contains the remains
of many distinguished refugees — amongst others, of
David Montolieu, Baron de St. Hyppolite.
Several other French churches were established in
the suburbs after the Revocation. At Chelsea, the
refugees had two chapels — one in Cook's Grounds (now
used by the Congregationalists), and another in Little
Chelsea. There were French churches also at Ham-
mersmith, at Hoxton,1 at Bow, and at Greenwich.
The last named was erected through the influence of
the Marquis de Ruvigny, who formed the centre of a
select circle of refugee Protestants who long continued
to inhabit the neighbou rhood . Before their little church
was ready for use, the refugees were allowed the use of
the parish church, at the conclusion of the forenoon
service on Sundays. Evelyn, in his Diary, makes men-
tion of his attending the French service there in 1687,
as well as the sermon which followed, in which he
says : " The preacher pathetically exhorted to patience,
constancy, and reliance on God, amidst all their suf-
ferings." The French church, which was afterwards
erected in London Street, not far from the Greenwich
parish church, was recently used as a Baptist chapel.
The other French chapels throughout the kingdom,
like those of London, received a large accession of
members after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes,
and in many cases became too small for their accom-
modation. Hence a second French church was opened
at Canterbury in a place called "The Malt-house,"
situated within the Cathedral precincts. It consisted
at first of about 300 persons; but the Canterbury
silk trade having been removed to Spitalfields, the
greater number of the French weavers followed it
thither; on which the Malthouse Chapel rapidly fell
off, and at length became extinct about the middle of
last century.
1 Of this church Jacob Bour- Register are those of Romilly,
dillon was the last pastor. Among Cossart, Faure, Durand, Hankey,
the names appearing in the Vidal, and Fargues.
CHAP. xvi. " GOD'S HOUSE" AT SOUTHAMPTON. 283
The old French church of "God's House" at
Southampton also received a considerable accession
of members, chiefly fugitives from the provinces of
the opposite sea-board. The oi'ginal Walloon element
had by this time almost entirely disappeared, — the
immigrants of a century before having become gra-
dually absorbed into the native population. Hence
nearly all the entries in the registers of the church,
subsequent to the year 1685, describe the members
as " Francois refugiez " ; some being from " Basse
Normandie," others from " Haute Languedoc," but the
greater number from the province of Poitou.
Numerous refugee military officers, retired from
active service, seem to have settled in the neighbour-
hood of Southampton about the beginning of last
century. Henry de Ruvigny, the venerable Earl of
Galway, lived at Rookley, and formed the centre of
a distinguished circle of refugee gentry. The Baron
de Huningue also lived in the town, and was so much
respected and beloved, that at his death he was
honoured with a public funeral. We also find the
families of the De Chavernoys and De Cosnes settled
in the place. The register of " God's House " contains
frequent entries relating to officers in " Colonel Mor-
dant's regiment." On one occasion we find Brigadier
Mordant standing sponsor for the twin sons of Major
Fran9ois du Chesne de Ruffanes, major of infantry;
and on another, the Earl of Galway standing sponsor
for the infant son of Pierre de Cosne, a refugee
gentleman of La Beauce. From the circumstance of
Gerard de Vaux, the owner of a paper-mill in South
Stoneham, being a member of the congregation, we
also infer that several of the settlers in the neigh-
bourhood of Southampton were engaged in that
branch of manufacture.
Among the new French churches formed in places
where there had been none before, and which mark
the new settlements that followed the fresh influx of
refugees, may be mentioned those of Bristol, Exeter,
284 COUNTRY HUGUENOT CHURCHES. CHAP. xvi.
Plymouth, Stonehouse, Dartmouth, Barnstaple, and
Thorpe-le-Soken in Essex.
The French Episcopal Church at Bristol seems at
one time to have been of considerable importance. It
was instituted in 1687,1 and was first held in what is
called the Mayor's Chapel of St. Mark the Gaunt ; but
in 1726 a chapel was built for the special use of the
French congregation on the ground of Queen Eliza-
beth's Hospital for the Red Maids, situated in Orchard
Street. The chapel, at its first opening, was so crowded
with worshippers, that the aisles, as well as the altar-
place, had to be fitted with benches for their accom-
modation. From the register of the church, it would
appear that the Bristol refugees consisted principally
of seafaring people — captains, masters, and sailors — •
from Nantes, Saumur, Saintonge, La Rochelle, and the
Isle of Rhd
The congregations formed at Plymouth and Stone-
house, as well as Dartmouth, were in like manner, for
the most part composed of sailors; whilst those at
Exeter were, on the other hand, principally trades-
people and artizans employed in the tapestry manu-
facture carried on in the city. M. Majendie, grand-
father of Dr. Majendie, Bishop of Chester, was one of
the ministers of the Exeter congregation; and Tom
D'Urfey, the song-writer, was the son of one of the
refugees settled in the place.
The settlement at Thorpe-le-Soken in Essex seems
to have been a comparatively small one, consisting
principally of refugee gentry and farmers ; but they
were in sufficient numbers to constitute a church, of
1 The refugees had begun to from the Corporation of Bristol,
settle at Bristol in considerable proposing that the fines then
numbers before this time. The levied on Dissenters in the city
reviewer of the first edition of should be appropriated to the
this book in the Evangelical relief of French Protestants just
Magazine for January, says : settled there. Many readers will
" We have noticed among the regard this as an illustration of
documents at the Record Office the old saying of robbing Peter
a curious paper, sent up in 1682 to pay Paul."
CHAP. xvi. DECLINE OF THE REFUGEE CHURCHES. 285
which M. Severin, who afterwards removed to Green-
wich, was the first minister. The church was closed
" for want of members " about the year 1726. As was
the case at many other places, the Thorpe-le-Soken
refugees gradually ceased to be French.
There was also a French church at Thorney Abbey,
of the origin of which nothing is known ; but it is sup-
posed to have been formed shortly after the breaking
up of the Walloon colony at Sandtoft, Hatfield Chace,
Yorkshire, in the time of the Commonwealth, when
the settlers removed southward. The names of the
colonists are in many instances the same, though there
are others which do not occur in the Sandtoft register,
probably those of new immigrants from the Walloon
provinces and from the northern parts of France. But
it does not appear that the congregation received any
accession of members in consequence of the Revocation
of the Edict of Nantes. Like the other churches of
the same kind, the members gradually became absorbed
in the general population, and the church ceased to
exist in the year 1727.
Year by year the foreign churches declined, even
when they were fed by fresh immigrations from abroad.
It was in the very nature of things that the rising
generation should fall away from them, and desire to
become completedly identified with the nation which
nad admitted them to citizenship. Hence the growing
defections in country places, as well as in the towns
and cities where the refugees had settled ; and hence
the growing complaints of the falling off in the num-
bers of their congregations which we find in the
sermons and addresses of the refugee pastors.
About the middle of last century, the thirty-five
French churches in London and its suburbs had be-
come reduced to a comparatively small number ; and the
sermons of the French pastors were full of lamenta-
tions as to the approaching decadence of those that re-
mained. This feeling was given eloquent utterance to
by the Rev. Jacob Bourdillon, minister of the Artillery
286 B 0 UJRDILL ON'S LAMENT A TION. CHAP. xvi.
Church in Spitalfields, on the occasion of the jubilee
sermon which he preached there in 1782, in com-
memoration of his fifty years' pastorate.1 He had been
appointed minister of the congregation when it was a
large and thriving one in 1731, and he now addressed
but a feeble remnant of what it had been. The
old members had died off; but their places had not
been supplied by the young, who had gone in search
of other pastures. It was the same with all the
other French churches. When M. Bourdillon was
appointed minister of " The Artillery," fifty years
before, there had, he said, been twenty flourishing
French churches in London, nine of which had since
been altogether closed ; while of the remaining eleven,
some were fast drawing to their end, others were
scarcely able to exist even with extraneous help, and
very few were in a position to support themselves.
The causes of this decadence of the churches of the
refugees, were not far to seek. The preacher found
1 Men of great eloquence had Barbauld,Couvenant,LaDouespe,
been ministers of the Artillery Du Boulay.
Church. Amongst these were Leicester Fields, Artillery,
Caesar Pegorier (the first minister), and La Patentc. — Blanc, Bar-
succeeded by Daniel Chamier, bauld, Stehelin, Micy, Barnauin.
Pierre Eival, Joseph de la Mothe, La Tremblade. — Gillet, Yver.
and Bzekiel Barbauld. During Castle Street and La Quarre.—
the fifty years of M. Bourdillon's Laval, Bernard, Cautier, Kober
pastorate, fifty -two ministers of Coderc.
the London refugee churches had La Patente, Spitalfields. —
died, — of whom six had been his Fourestier, Manuel, Balgnari6
own colleagues. The deceased Masson.
pastors, whose names he men- Brown's Lane. — La Moyne.
tioned, as well as the churches St. John's Street. — Vincent
where they ministered, were as Palairet, Beuzeville.
follows: — Wapping. — Sally de Gaujae,
Chapel Royal, St. James's. — Le Beaupin Bay, Guizot, Prel-
The Revs. M. Menard, Aufrere, leur.
Series. Eocheblanc, De Missy, Swan Fields. — Briel.
Barbauld, Muissotu Pastors of other French
The Savoy. — Olivier, Du Cros, churches, who had died in Lon-
Durand, Deschamps. don. — Forent, Majendie, Ester-
The Walloon Church, Thread- nod, Montignac, Du Plessis.
needle Street. — Bertheau, Bes- Villette, Duval.
combes, De St. Colombe, Bonyer,
CHAP. xvi. EXTINCTION OF HUGUENOT CHURCHES. 287
them in " the lack of zeal and faithfulness in the heads
of families, in encouraging their children to maintain
them — churches which their ancestors had reared, a
glorious monument of the generous sacrifice which they
had made, of their country, their possessions, and their
employments, in the sacred cause of conscience, for the
open profession of the truth ; whereas now," said he,
" through the growing aversion of the young for the
language of their fathers, from whom they seem almost
ashamed to be descended; — shall I say more? — because
of inconstancy in the principles of the faith, which
induces so many by a sort of infatuation to forsake
the ancient assemblies in order to follow novelties
unknown to our fathers, and listen to pretended
teachers whose only gifts are rapture and babble, and
whose sole inspiration consists in self-sufficiency and
pride. Alas ! what ravages have been made here, as
elsewhere, during this jubilee of fifty years ! "
But there were other causes besides these, to account
for the decadence of the refugee churches. Nature
itself was working against them. Year by year the
children of the refugees were becoming less and less
Erench, and more and more English. They lived and
worked amongst the English, and spoke their lan-
guage. They intermarried with them ; their children
played together ; and the idea of remaining foreigners
in the country in which they had been born and bred,
became year by year more distasteful to them. They
were not a " peculiar people," like the Jews ; but
Protestants, like the nation which had given them
refuge, and into which they naturally desired to be-
come merged. Hence it was that, by the end of the
eighteenth century, nearly all the French churches, as
such, had disappeared ; and the places of the French
ministers became occupied in many cases by clergymen
of the Established Church, and in others by ministers
of the different dissenting persuasions.
The Church of the Artillery, in which the Rev. J.
Bourdillon preached the above sermon, so full of
288 THti FRENCH HOSPITAL. CHAP. xvr.
lamentations, is now occupied as a poor Jews' syna-
gogue L'Eglise Neuve is a chapel of the Wesleyan
Methodists. L'Eglise de St. Jean, Swan Fields, Shore-
ditch, has become one of the ten new churches of St.
Matthew, Bethnal Green. Swallow Street Chapel is
used as a Scotch Church. Leicester Fields, now called
Orange Street Chapel, is occupied by a congregation
of Independents. Whereas Castle Street Chapel,
Leicester Square, was, until quite recently, used as a
Court of Requests.
The French churches at Wands worth and Chelsea
are occupied by the Independents ; and those at
Greenwich and Plymouth by the Baptists. The Dutch
church at Maidstone is used as a school ; while the
Walloon church at Yarmouth was first converted into
a theatre, and has since done duty as a warehouse.
A.mong the charitable institutions founded by the re-
fugees for the succour of their distressed fellow-country-
men in England, the French Hospital was the most
important. This establishment owes its origin to M.
De Gastigny, a French gentleman who had been mas-
ter of the buckhounds to William III. while Prince of
Orange. At his death in 1708, he bequeathed a sum
of £1000 towards founding an hospital in London
for the relief of distressed French Protestants. The
money was placed at interest for eight years, during
which successive benefactions were added to the fund.
In 1716, a piece of ground in Old Street, St. Luke's,
was purchased of the Ironmongers' Company, and a
lease was taken from the city of London of some ad-
joining land, forming altogether an area of about four
acres, on which a building was erected and fitted up
for the reception of eighty poor Protestants of the
French nation. In 1718, George I. granted a charter
of incorporation to the governor and directors of the
hospital, under which the Earl of Galway was ap-
pointed the first governor. Shortly after, in November,
1718, the opening of the institution was celebrated by
a solemn act of religion ; and the chapel was conse-
CHAP. xvi. DlRECTOUS OF THE FRENCH HOSPITAL. 280
crated amidst a great concourse of refugees and their
descendants, the Rev. Philip Menard, minister of the
French chapel of St James's, conducting the service on
the occasion.
From that time the funds of the institution have
steadily increased. The French merchants of London,
who had been so prosperous in trade, liberally con-
tributed towards its support ; and legacies and dona-
tions multiplied. Lord Galway bequeathed £1000 to
the hospital at his death in 1720 ; and, in the follow-
ing year, Baron Hervart de Huningue gave a donation
of £4000. The corporation were thus placed in the
posssesion of ample means : and they proceeded to
erect additional buildings, in which they were enabled,
by the year 1760, to give asylum to 234 poor people.1
Among the distinguished noblemen and gentlemen
of French Protestant descent, who have officiated as
governors of the institution since the date of its
foundation, may be mentioned the Earl of Galway, the
Baron de Huningue, Robethon (privy councillor), the
Baron de la Court, Lord Ligonier, and several successive
Earls of Radnor; whilst among the lists of directors
we recognise the names of Montolieu, Baron de St.
Hippolite, Gambier, Bosanquet, Columbies, Magendie
(D.D.), Colonel de Cosne', Dalbiac, Gaussen, Dargent,
Blaquiere, General Ruffane, Lefevre, Boileau (Bart.),
Colonel Vignoles, Romilly, Turquand, Pechel (Bart.),
Travers, Lieut.-General de Villetes, Major-General
Montressor, Devisme, Chamier (M.P.), Major-General
Layard, Bouverie, Captain Dumaresq (R.N.), Duval,
the Hon. Philip Pusey, Andre' (Bart.), De Hochepied
Larpent (Bart.), Jean Sylvestre (Bart.), Cazenove,
Dolland, Petit (M.D.), Le Mesurier, Landon, Martineau,
1 The French hospital has re- of Mr. Kobert Lewis Koumieu,
cently been removed from its architect, one of the directors ;
original site to Victoria Park, Mr. Roumieu being himself de-
where a handsome building has scended from an illustrious Hu-
been erected as an hospital for guenot family — the Roumieus of
the accommodation of 40 men Languedoc.
and 20 women, after the designs
JL J
290 FRENCH CHURCH IN CANTERBURY. CHAP. xvi.
Baron Maseres, Chevalier, Durand, Hanbury, Labou-
chere, De la Rue (F.R.S.) ; and many other names well
known and highly distinguished in the commerce,
politics, literature,, and science of England.
One of the most interesting relics of the Huguenot
immigration, which has survived the absorption of
the refugees into the general population, is the French
church which still continues to exist in the Under Croft
of Canterbury Cathedral. Three hundred years have
passed since the first body of exiled Walloons met to
worship there, — three hundred years, during which
generations have come and gone, and revolutions have
swept over Europe ; and still that eloquent memorial
of the religious history of the middle ages survives,
bearing testimony alike to the rancour of the persecu-
tions abroad, the steadfastness of the foreign Protes-
tants, the liberal spirit of the English Church, and the
free asylum which England has provided in past times
for fugitives from foreign oppression and tyranny.
The visitor to the cathedral, in passing through
the Under Croft, has usually pointed out to him the
apartment still used as "the French Church." It is
walled off from the crypt in the south side-aisle ; and
through the windows which overlook the interior
the arrangements of the place can easily be observed.
It is plainly fitted up with pews, a pulpit, and pre-
centor's desk, like a dissenting place of worship ; and
indeed it is a dissenting place of worship, though
forming part of the High Cathedral of Canterbury.
The place also contains a long table, at which the
communicants §it when receiving the sacrament of
the Lord's Supper, after the manner of the Geneva
brethren.
And here the worship still continues to be conducted
in French, and the psalms are sung to the old Huguenot
tunes, almost within sound of the high choral service
of the Established Church of England overhead.
" Here," says the German Dr. Pauli, " the eaiiy
refugees celebrated the services of their Church; and
CHAP. xvi. DUTCH CONGREGATION AT NORWICH. 291
here their descendants, who are now reduced to a very
small number, still carry on their Presbyterian mode
of worship in their own tongue, immediately below
the south aisle of the high choir, where the Anglican
ritual is observed in all its prescribed form — a noble
and touching concurrence, the parallel to which
cannot be met with in any other cathedral church in
England."1
The French church at Canterbury would doubtlesn
long since have become altogether extinct, like the
other churches of the refugees, but for an endowment
of about £200 a year, which has served to keep it
alive. The members do not now amount to more than
twenty, of whom two are elders and four deacons.
The Dutch congregation at Norwich has also con-
tinued to exist in name, for the same reason. There is
an endowment belonging to it of some £70 a year; and
to preserve this, an annual service is held in the choir of
the Black Friars' Church, still called the Dutch Church,
— the nave of the building being known as St. Andrew's
Hall, and used for holding public meetings and festivals.
The annual sermon, preached in Dutch, is a mere form,
and the congregation has become a shadow without
substance.
But though these ancient churches are now the
mere vestiges and remnants of what they once were,
they are nevertheless of genuine interest, and serve
to mark an epoch of memorable importance in the
history of England.
1 PAULI, Pictures of Old England, 29.
CHAPTER XVII.
HUGUENOT SETTLEMENTS IN IRELAND.
IT was long the favourite policy of the English mon-
archs to induce foreign artizans to settle in Ireland
and establish new branches of trade. It was hoped
that the Irish people, inhabiting so rich a land, and
needing only peace and industry to make it prosper,
might be induced to follow their example ; and that
the abundant population of the country, instead of being
a source of poverty and idleness, might be rendered a
source of national wealth and strength.
Elizabeth encouraged such settlements in Ireland,
though the disturbed state of the country prevented
her intentions being carried into effect. While many
Flemish settlements were established in England
during her reign, almost the only one of a similar kind
established in Ireland, of which we have any account,
was that of Swords, near Dublin.
It was not until the early part of the reign of
James I. that any considerable progress was made in the
settlement of foreign artizans and merchants in Ireland.
In 1605, John Vertroven and John Van Dale of Brabant,
Gabriel Behaes and Matthew Derenzie of Antwerp, —
in 1607, William Baell of Antwerp,— in 1608, James
Marcus of Amsterdam, and Derrick Varveer of Dort,
— and in 1613, Wybrant Olferston and John Olferston
of Holland, — obtained grants of naturalisation, and
settled in Ireland, mostly at Dublin and Waterford,
where they carried on business as merchants. It is
supposed that the Vanhomrigh and Vandeleur families
CHAP. xvii. FOREIGN SETTLEMENTS IN IRELAND. 293
entered Ireland about the same period. The strangers
made good their footing, and eventually established
themselves as landed proprietors in the country.
When the Earl of Strafford was appointed chief
deputy in the reign of Charles I., he applied himself
with much zeal to the establishment of the linen-
manufacture ; sending to Holland for flax-seed, and
inviting Flemish and French artizans to settle in
Ireland. In order to stimulate the new industry, the
earl himself embarked in it, and expended not less
than £30,000 of his private fortune in the enterprise.
It was afterwards made one of the grounds of his
impeachment that " he had obstructed the industry of
the country by introducing new and unknown pro-
cesses into the manufacture of flax." It was neverthe-
less greatly to the credit of the earl that he should
have endeavoured to improve the industry of Ireland
by introducing the superior processes employed by the
foreign artizans ; and had he not attempted to turn
the improved flax-manufacture to his own advantage
by erecting it into a personal monopoly, he would
have been entitled to great regard as a genuine bene-
factor of Ireland.
The Duke of Ormond followed the example of
Strafford in endeavouring to induce foreigners to settle
in Ireland. Only two years after the Restoration, he
had a bill carried through the Irish Parliament en-
titled " An Act for encouraging Protestant strangers
and others to inhabit Ireland," which duly received
the royal assent. The Duke actively encouraged the
settlement of the foreigners, establishing about four
hundred Flemish artizans at Chapel Izod, in Kilkenny,
under Colonel Richard Lawrence. He there built
houses for the weavers, supplying them with looms
and raw material ; and a considerable trade in cordage,
sail-cloth, and linen shortly grew up. The Duke also
settled Walloon colonies at Clonmel, Kilkenny, and
FOSTER, Lives of Eminent British Statesmen, ii, 385.
294 FRENCH EXILES IN DUBLIN. CHAP. xvn.
Carrick-on-Suir, where they established, and for some
time successfully carried on, the making of woollen
cloths and other branches of manufacture.
The refugees were prosperously pursuing their
respective trades when the English Revolution of 1688
occurred, and again Ireland was thrown into a state
of civil war, which continued for three years, but
was at length concluded by the peace of Limerick in
1691.
No sooner was the war at an end, than William III.
took active steps to restore the prostrate industry of
the country. The Irish Parliament again revived
their bill of 1674 (which the Parliament of James II.
had suspended), granting naturalisation to such Pro-
testant refugees as should settle in Ireland, and
guaranteeing them the free exercise of their religion.
A large number of William's foreign officers at once
availed themselves of the privilege, and settled at
Youghal, Waterford, and Portarlington ; whilst colonies
of foreign manufacturers at the same time planted
themselves at Dublin, Cork, Lisburn, and othei
places.
The refugees who settled at Dublin established
themselves for the most part in " The Liberties," where
they began the manufacture of tabinet, since more
generally known as " Irish Poplin." ] The demand
for the article became such, that a number of French
masters and workmen left Spitalfields, and migrated
to Dublin, where they largely extended the manufac-
ture. The Combe, Pimlico, Spitalfields, and other
streets in Dublin, named after corresponding streets
in London, were built for their accommodation; and
Weaver's Square became a principal quarter in the
1 There are no certain records ing of tabinets or poplins and
for fixing the precise date when tabbareas, in the liberties of
silk-weaving was commenced in Dublin, about the year 1693. —
Dublin ; but it is generally be- Dr. W. CO»KE TAYLOB, in Statis-
lieved that an ancestor of the ticalJourital for December, 1843,
present respected family of the p. 354.
Lateuches commenced the \veav-
CHAP. xvii. HUGUENOTS IN ULSTER. 295
city. For a time the trade was very prosperous,
and gave employment to a large number of persons ;
but about the beginning of the present century, the
frequent recurrence of strikes among the workmen
paralysed the employers of labour. The manufacture
became almost entirely lost, and "The Liberties,"
instead of the richest, became one of the poorest quarters
of Dublin. So long as the French colony prospered,
the refugees had three congregations in the city. One
of these was an Episcopal congregation, attached to
St. Patrick's Cathedral, which worshipped at St. Mary's
Chapel, granted them by the dean and chapter ; and it
continued in existence until the year 1816. The other
two were Calvinistic congregations, one of which had a
chapel in Peter Street,1 and the other in Lucas Lane.
The refugees had special burying-places assigned to
them ; the principal one adjoined St. Stephen's Green,
the other was situated on the southern outskirts of
the city.
But the northern counties of Down and Antrim
were, more than any other parts of Ireland, regarded
as the sanctuary of the refugees. There they found
themselves amongst men of their own religion, —
mostly Scotch Calvinists, who had fled from the Stuart
persecutions in Scotland to take refuge in the com-
paratively unmolested districts of Ulster. Lisburn,
formerly called Lisnagarvey, about ten miles south-
west of Belfast, was one of their favourite settle-
ments. The place had been burnt to the ground in
the civil war of 1641 ; but with the help of the re-
fugees, it was before long restored to more than its
former importance, and became one of the most pros-
perous towns in Ireland.
The government of the day, while they discouraged
the woollen-manufacture of Ireland because of its
supposed injury to England, made every effort to en-
1 The old French church in Peter Street is now used as the
Molyneux asylum for the blind.
296 LOUIS CROMMELIN. CHAP. xvn.
courage the trade in linen. An Act was passed with
the latter object in 1697, containing various enact-
ments calculated to foster the growth of flax and the
manufacture of linen cloth. Before the passing of
this Act, William III. invited Louis Crommelin, a
Huguenot refugee, then temporarily settled in Holland,
to coine over into Ireland and undertake the super-
intendence of the new branch of industry.
Crommelin belonged to a family that had carriec
en the linen-manufacture in its various branches in
France for upwards of 400 years. He had himself
been engaged in the business for more than thirty
years at Arinancourt, near Saint Quentin in Picardy,
where he was born. He was singularly well fitted for
the office to which the King called him. He was a
man of admirable business qualities, excellent good
sense, and remarkable energy and perseverance. Being
a Protestant, and a man of much foresight, he had
quietly realised what he could of his large property
in the neighbourhood of St. Quentin, shortly before
the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes; and he had
migrated across the frontier into Holland before the
bursting of the storm.
In 1698, Crommelin, having accepted the invitation
of William, left Holland, accompanied by his son, and
shortly after his arrival in England he proceeded into
the north of Ireland to fix upon the site best adapted
for his intended undertaking. After due deliberation,
he pitched upon the ruined village of Lisnagarvey as
the most suitable for his purpose.1 The King approved
of the selection, and authorised Crommelin to proceed
with his operations, appointing him " Overseer of the
Royal Linen Manufactory of Ireland." In considera-
tion of Crommelin advancing £10,000 out of his own
private fortune to commence the undertaking, a grant
of £800 per annum was guaranteed to him for twelve
1 Crommelin's first factory was Weacliing-ground was started at
at the foot of the wooden bridge the place called Hiklen.
over the Lagan, and his first
CHAP. xvii. ESTABLISHES THE LINEN TRADE. 297
years — being at the rate of 8 per cent, on the capital
invested. At the same time, an annuity of £200 was
granted him for life, and £120 a year for two assist-
ants, whose duty it was to travel from place to place
and superintend the cultivation of the flax, as well as
to visit the bleach ing-grounds and see to the proper
finishing of the fabric.
Crommelin sent invitations abroad to the Protestant
artizans to come over and join him, and numbers of
them responded to his call. A little colony of refugees
of all ranks and of many trades was soon planted at
Lisburn, and the place exhibited an appearance of
returning prosperity. With a steadiness of purpose
which distinguished Crommelin through life, he devoted
himself with unceasing zeal to the promotion of the
enterprise which he had taken in hand. He liberally
rewarded the toil of his brother exiles, and cheered them
on the road to success. He imported from Holland a
thousand looms and spinning-wheels of the best con-
struction, and gave a premium of £5 for every loom that
was kept going. Before long, he introduced improve-
ments of his own in the looms and spinning- wheels, as
well as in the implements and in the preparation of the
material. Every branch of the operations made rapid
progress under the Huguenot chief — from the sowing,
cultivating, and preparing of the flax through the
vai'ious stages of its manipulation, to the finishing of
the cloth at the bleach-field. And thus by painstaking,
skill, and industry, zealously supported as he was by
his artizans, Crommelin was shortly enabled to produce
finer sorts of fabrics than had ever before been made
in Britain.
Crommelin, amongst his other labours for the estabt
lishment of the linen trade, wrote and published a-
Dublin, in 1705, An Essay towards tlte Improving of
the Hempen and Flaxen Manufactures of Hie, Kingdom
of Ireland, so that all might be made acquainted with
the secret of his success, and enabled to follow his
example. The treatise contained many useful instruc-
298 CROMMELIN A PUBLIC BENEFACTOR. CHAP. XVIL
tions for the cultivation of flax, in the various stages
of its planting and growth, together with directions for
the preparation of the material, in the several processes
of spinning, weaving, and bleaching.
Though a foreigner, Crornmelin continued through-
out his life to take a warm interest in the prosperity
of his adopted country ; and his services were recog-
nised, not only by King William, who continued his
firm friend to the last, but by the Irish Parliament,
who from time to time voted grants of money to him-
self, his assistants, and his artizans, to enable him to
prosecute his enterprise ; and in 1707, they voted him
the public thanks for his patriotic efforts towards the
establishment of the linen trade in Ireland, of which
he was the founder. Orommelin died in 1727, and
was buried beside other members of his family, in the
churchyard at Lisburn.
The French refugees long continued a distinct
people in the neighbourhood. They clung together,
associated and worshipped together, frequenting their
own Huguenot church, in which they had a long suc-
cession of French pastors.1 They carefully educated
their children in the French language, and in the
Huguenot faith ; cherishing the hope of being enabled
some day to return to their native land. But that
hope at length died out, and the descendants of the
Crommelins eventually mingled with the families of
the Irish, and became part and parcel of the British
nation.
1 The Rev. Saumarez Dubour- by deaths as well as intermar-
dieu, grandson of the celebrated riages with Irish families, the
French Pastor of the Savoy chapel was at length closed. It
Church in London, was minister is now used as the court-house of
of the French church at Lisburn Lisburn. The pastor Dubourdieu
for forty-five years, and was so joined the Established Church,
beloved in the neighbourhood and was presented with the
that, at the insurrection of 1798, living of Lambeg. His son,
he was the only person in Lisburn rector of Annahelt, County Down,
whom the insurgents agreed to was the author of A Statistical
spare. The French congregation Survey of the County Antrim,
having become greatly decreased, published in 1812.
CHAP. xvil. PETER GOYER. 299
Among the other Freech settlers at Lisburn, was
Peter Goyer, a native of Picardy. He owned a large
farm there, and also carried on an extensive business
as a manufacturer of cambric and silk, at the time of
the Revocation. When the Dragonnades began, he
left his property behind him, and fled across the
frontier. The record is still preserved in the family, of
the cruelties practised upon Peter's martyred brother
by the ruthless French soldiery, who tore a leaf from
his Bible, and forced it into his mouth before he died.
From Holland, Goyer proceeded to England, and from
thence to Lisburn, where he began the manufacture of
the articles for which he had acquired so much reputa-
tion in his own country. After a short time, he re-
solved on returning to France, in the hope of being able
to recover some of his property. But the persecution was
raging more fiercely than before, and he found that, if
captured, he would probably be condemned to the gal-
leys for life. He again contrived to make his escape,
having been carried on board an outward-bound ship
concealed in a wine-cask. Returned to Lisburn, he
resumed the manufacture of silk and cambric, in which
he employed a considerable number of workmen. His
silk manufacture was destroyed by the rebellion of
1798, which dispersed the workpeople ; but that of
cambric survived, and became firmly founded at
Lurgan, which now enjoys a high reputation for the
perfection of its manufactures.
Other colonies of the refugees were established in
the south of Ireland, where they carried on various
branches of manufacture. William Crommelin, a
brother of Louis, having been appointed one of his
assistants, superintended the branch of the linen trade
which was established at Kilkenny through the instru-
mentality of the Marquis of Ormonde. At Limerick,
the refugees established the lace and glove trades,
which still flourish. At Bandon, they carried on
cloth-manufacturing, the names of the colonists indi-
cating a mixture of Walloons and Huguenots, — the
300 FRENCH MANUFACTURERS AT CORK. CHAP. xvn.
GaiTetts, De Ruyters, and Minhears being Flemish,
and the Beaumonts, Willises, and Baxters, being French
immigrants, from the banks of the Loire.
Another settlement of French refugees was formed
at Cork, where they congregated in a quarter of the
town forming part of the parish of St. Paul, the prin-
cipal street in which is French Church Street, so called
from the place of worship belonging to them, where
the service wras performed in French down to the be-
ginning of the present century.1 Though the principal
refugees in Cork were merchants and traders, there
was a sufficient number of them to begin the manufac-
ture of woollen cloth, ginghams, and other fabrics,
which they carried on for a time with considerable
success. Another body of Huguenot refugees en-
deavoured to introduce the silk manufacture at Inne-
shannon, about three miles below Bandon, where they
built houses recognisable by their ornamental brick-
work and lozenge-shaped windows, and which is still
known as "the colony." But their efforts to rear
silkworms failed; the colonists migrated to Spital-
fields ; and all that remains of their enterprise is " The
Mulberry Field," which still retains its name.
The woollen-manufacture at Cork was begun by
James Fontaine, a member of the noble family of De
la Fontaine in France, a branch of which embraced
Protestantism in the sixteenth century, and continued
to adhere to it down to the period of the Revocation.
The career of James Fontaine was singularly illustra-
tive of the times in which he lived. His case was only
one amongst thousands of others, in which persons of
1 A. Cork correspondent says : Post* Office Directory, • Coach-
"The Irish could never pro- and- Six Lane.' A Huguenot of
nounce the French names, and the name of Couchancex having
some curious misnomers have resided here more than a century
been the consequence, now iden- ago, when it was a fashionable
tified with the topography of the quarter, the place was called after
city. For example, there is a him, and has thus become meta-
wretched cul-de-sac off the north morphosed into ' Coach-and-
main street, now called in the Six.' "
HAP. xvil. JAMES FONTAINE. 301
rank, wealth, and learning, were suddenly stripped of
their all, and compelled to become wanderers over the
earth for conscience' sake. His life further serves to
show how a clever and agile Frenchman, thrown upon
a foreign shore, a stranger to its people and its language,
without any calling or resources, but full of energy and
courage, could contrive to earn an honest living and
achieve an honourable reputation.
James Fontaine was the son of a Protestant pastor
of the same name, and was born at Royan in Saintonge,
a famous Huguenot district. His father was the first
of the family to drop the aristocratic prefix of " de la,"
which he did from motives of modesty. When a child
Fontaine met with an accident through the carelessness
of a nurse, which rendered him lame for life. When
only eight years old, his father died, so that little was
done for his education until he arrived at about the
age of seventeen, when he was placed under a com-
petent tutor, and eventually took the degree of M.A.,
at the College of Guienne, in his twenty-second year.
Shortly after, his mother died, and he became the
possessor of her landed propert}7 near Pons, in the
Charente.
Young Fontaine's sister, Marie, had married a
Protestant pastor named Forestier, of St. Mesme
in Angoumois. Jacques went to live with them for a
time, and to study theology under the pastor. The
persecutions having shortly set in, Forestier's church
was closed and he himself compelled to fly to England.
The congregation of St. Mesme was consequently left
without a minister. Young Fontaine, though he well
knew the risks he ran, nevertheless encouraged the
Protestants to assemble in the open air, and occasion-
ally conducted their devotions. On being informed
against, he was cited to appear before the local
tribunals. He was charged with the crime of at-
tending a Protestant meeting in 1684, contrary to
law ; and though he had not been present at the meet-
ing specified, he was condemned and imprisoned. He
302 FONTAINE ESCAPES FROM FRANCE. CHAP.XVII.
appealed to the Parliament at Paris, V'hither he carried
his plea of alibi, and was acquitted.
When the intelligence reached him in the following
year, that the Edict of Revocation was proclaimed, he
at once determined to make his escape. A party of
Protestant ladies had arranged to accompany him,
consisting of Janette Forestier, the daughter of the
pastor of St. Mesme (already in England) , his niece,
and the two Mesdemoiselles Boursignot, to one of whom
Fontaine was betrothed.
At Marennes, the captain of an English ship was
found, willing to give the party a passage to England.
It was at first intended that they should rendezvous
on the sands near Tremblade, and then proceed privily
on shipboard. But the coast was strictly guarded,
especially between Royan and La Rochelle, where the
Protestants of the interior were constantly seeking out-
lets for escape ; and this part of the plan was given up.
The search of vessels leaving the ports had become so
strict, that the English captain feared that even if
Fontaine and his ladies succeeded in getting on board,
it would not be possible for him to conceal them or
prevent their falling into the hands of the King's
detectives. He therefore proposed that his ship should
set sail, and that the fugitives should put out to sea
and wait for him, when he would take them on board.
It proved fortunate that this plan was adopted ; for,
scarcely had the English merchantman left Tremblade,
than she was boarded and searched by a French frigate
on the look-out for fugitive Protestants. No prisoners
were found ; and the captain of the merchantman was
ordered to proceed at once to his destination.
Meanwhile, the boat containing the fugitives having
put out to sea, as arranged, lay to, waiting the ap-
proach of the English vessel. That they might not be
descried from the frigate, which was close at hand, the
boatman made them lie down in the bottom of the
boat, covering them with an old sail. They all knew
the penalties to which they were liable if detected in
CHAP. xvn. ARRIVAL AT BARNSTAPLE. 303
the attempt to escape — Fontaine, the boatman, and
his son, to condemnation to the galleys for life ; and
the three ladies to imprisonment for life. The frigate
bore down upon the boat and hailed the boatman,
who feigned drunkenness so well that he completely
deceived the captain, who, seeing nothing but the old
sail in the bottom of the boat, ordered the frigate's
head to be put about, when it sailed away in the direc-
of Rochefort. Shortly after, while she was still in
sight, though distant, the agreed signal was given by
the boat to the merchantman (that of dropping the sail
three times in the apparent attempt to hoist it), on
which the English vessel lay to, and took the exiles on
board. After a voyage of eleven days, they reached
the welcome asylum of England, and Fontaine and
his party landed at Barnstaple, North Devon, — his sole
property consisting of twenty pistoles and six silver
spoons, which had belonged to his father, and bore upon
them his infantine initials, I. D. L. F.— Jacques de la
Fontaine.
Fontaine and the three ladies were hospitably re-
ceived by Mr. Donne of Barnstaple, with whom they
lived until a home could be provided for their recep-
tion. One of the first things which occupied Fontaine's
attention was, how to earn a living for their support.
A cabin-biscuit, which he bought for a halfpenny,
gave him his first hint. The biscuit would have cost
twopence in France ; and it at once occurred to him
that, such being the case, grain might be shipped from
England to France at a profit. Mr. Donne agreed to
advance the money requisite for the purpose, taking
half the profits. The first cargo of corn exported
proved very profitable ; but Fontaine's partner after-
wards insisting on changing the consignee, who proved
dishonest, the speculation eventually proved unsuc-
cessful.
Font nine had by this time married the Huguenot
lady to whom he was betrothed, and who had accom-
panied him in his flight to England. After the failure
304 FONTAINE IN IRELAND. CHAP. xvn.
of the corn speculation, he removed to Taunton in
Somerset, where he made a shift to live. He took
pupils, dealt in provisions, sold brandy, groceries, stock-
ings, leather, tin and copper wares, and carried on
wool-combing, dyeing, and the making of calimancoes.
In short, he was a "jack-of-all-trades." He followed
so many callings, and occasioned so much jealousy in
the place, that he was cited before the mayor and
aldermen as an interloper, and required to give an
account of himself. This and other circumstances
determined him to give up business in Taunton — not,
however, before he had contrived to save about £1000
by his industry — and to enter upon the life of a pastor.
He had already been admitted to holy orders by the
French Protestant synod at Taunton, and in 1694 he
left that town for Ireland, in search of a congregation.
Fontaine's adventures in Ireland were even more
remarkable than those which he had experienced in
England. The French refugees established at Cork
had formed themselves into a congregation, of which
he was appointed pastor in January, 1695. They
were, however, as yet too poor to pay him any stipend ;
and, in order to support himself, as well as turn to
account the money which he had saved by his industry
and frugality at Taunton, he began a manufactory of
broadcloth. This gave much welcome employment to
the labouring poor of the city, besides contributing
towards the increase of its general trade, — in acknow-
ledgment of which the corporation presented him
with the freedom. He still continued to officiate as
pastor ; but, one day, when expounding the text of
" Thou shalt not steal," he preached so effectively as
to make a personal enemy of a member of his congre-
gation, who, unknown to him, had been engaged in a
swindling transaction. The result was, that so much
dissension was occasioned in the congregation, that he
eventually gave up the charge.
To occupy his spare time, — for Fontaine was a man
of an intensely active temperament, and most unhappy
CHAP. xvil. FONTAINE'S FISHING COMPANY. 305
when unemployed, — he took a farm at Bearhaven,
situated at the entrance to Bantry Bay, nearly at the
extreme south-west point of Munster, the very Land's
End of Ireland, for the purpose of founding a fishery.
The idea occurred to him, as it has since occurred to
others, that there were many hungry people on land
waiting to be fed, and shoals of fish at sea waiting to
be caught, — and that it would be a useful enterprise
to form a fishing-company, and induce the idle people
to put to sea and catch the fish, selling to others
the surplus beyond what was necessary to feed them.
Fontaine succeeded in inducing some of the French
merchants settled in London to join him in the
venture ; and he himself went to reside at Bearhaven
to superintend the operations of the company.
Fontaine failed, as other Irish fishing-companies
have since failed. The people would rather starve
than go to sea — for Celts are by nature averse to salt
water; and the consequence was, that the company
made no progress. Fontaine had even to defend
himself against the pillaging and plundering of the
natives. He then induced some thirteen French re-
fugee families to settle in the neighbourhood, having
previously taken small farms for them, including
Dursey Island ; but the Irish gave the foreigners
no peace nor rest, and they left before the end of
three years. The local court would not give Fon-
taine any redress when an injury was done to him.
If his property was stolen, and he appealed to the
court, his complaint was referred to a jury of papists,
who invariably decided against him ; whereas, if the
natives made any claim upon him, they were sure
to recover what they demanded.
Notwithstanding these great discouragements, Fon-
taine held to his purpose, and determined, if possible,
to establish a fishing station. He believed that time
would work in his favour, and that it might yet be
possible to educate the people into habits of industry.
He was well supported by the Government, who, ob-
20
306 FONTAINE'S SOD FOKT STOPPED. CHAP. xvn.
serving his zealous efforts to establish a new branch of
industry, and desirous of giving him increased influ-
ence in his neighbourhood, appointed him Justice of
the Peace. In this capacity he was found very useful
in keeping down the " Tories," and breaking up the
connection between them and the French privateers
who occasionally frequented the coast. Knowing his
liability to attack, Fontaine converted his residence at
Bearhaven into a sod fort ; and not without cause, as
the result proved.
In June, 1704, a French privateer entered Ban try
Bay, and proceeded to storm the sod fort ; when the
lame Fontaine, by the courage and ability of his
defence, showed himself a commander of no mean
skill. John Macliney, a Scotchman, and Paul Roussier,
a French refugee, showed great bravery on the occa-
sion ; while Madame Fontaine, who acted as aide-de-
camp and surgeon, distinguished herself by her quiet
courage. The engagement lasted from eight in the
morning until four in the afternoon, when the French
decamped with the loss of three killed and seven
wounded, spreading abroad a very wholesome fear of
Fontaine and his sod fort. When the refugee's gallant
exploit was reported to the government, he was re-
warded by a pension of five shillings a day for beating
off the privateer, and supplied with five guns, which
he was authorised to mount in his battery.
Fontaine was not allowed to hold his post unmo-
lested. It was at the remotest corner of the island,
far from any town, and surrounded by a hostile popu-
lation in league with the enemy, whose ships were
constantly hovering about the coast. In the year suc-
ceeding the above engagement, while Fontaine himself
was absent in London, a French ship entered Bantry
Bay, and cautiously approached Bearhaven. Fon-
taine's wife was, however, on the look-out, and detected
the foreigner. She had the guns loaded and one of
them fired off to show that the little garrison was on
the alert. The Frenchman then veered off and made
CHAP. xvn. THE FORT AGAIN ASSAULTED. 307
for Bear Island, where a party of the crew landed,
stole some cattle, which they put on board, and sailed
away again.
A more serious assault was made on the fort about
two years later. A company of soldiers was then
quartered at the Half Barony in the neighbourhood,
the captain of which boarded with the refugee family
On the 7th of October, 1708, during the temporary
absence of Fontaine as well as the captain, a French
privateer made his appearance in the haven, and
hoisted English colours. The ensign residing in the
fort at the time, deceived by the stratagem, went on
board, when he was immediately made prisoner. He
was plied with drink and became intoxicated, when
he revealed the fact that there was no officer in
command of the fort. The crew of the privateer were
principally Irish, and they determined to attack the
place at midnight, for which purpose a party of them
landed.
Fontaine had by this time returned, and was on
the alert. He hailed the advancing party through a
speaking-trumpet, and, no answer being returned, he
ordered fire to be opened on them. The assailants
then divided into six detachments, one of which set
fire to the offices and stables ; the household servants,
under the direction of Madame Fontaine, protecting
the dwelling-house from conflagration. The men
within fired from the windows and loopholes, but the
smoke was so thick that they could only fire at
random. Some of the privateer's men succeeded in
making a breach with a crowbar in the wall of the
house, but they were saluted with so rapid a fire
through the opening that they suspected there must
be a party of soldiers in the house, and they retired.
They advanced again, and summoned the besieged to
surrender, offering fair terms. Fontaine approached
the French for the purpose of parley, when one of the
Irish lieutenants took aim and fired at him. This
treachery made the Fontaines resume the defensive,
308 A GLORIOUS FEAT! CHAP. xrn.
which was continued without intermission for some
hours ; when, no help arriving, Fontaine found himself
under the necessity of surrendering, conditional upon
himself and his two sons, with their two followers,
marching out with the honours of war. No sooner,
however, had the house been surrendered, than Fon-
taine, his sons, and their followers, were at once made
prisoners, and the dwelling was given up to plunder.
Fontaine protested against this violation of the
treaty, but it was of no use. The leader of the French
party said to him, " Your name has become so noto-
rious among the privateers of St. Malo, that I dare
not return to the vessel without you. The captain's
order was peremptory, to bring you on board, dead or
alive." Fontaine and his sons were accordingly taken
on board prisoners ; and when the Huguenot hero
appeared on deck, the crew set up a shout of " Vive
le Roi." On this, Fontaine called out, " Gentleman,
how long is it since victories have become so rare in
France, that you must needs make a triumph of such
a poor affair as this ? A glorious feat indeed ! Eighty
men, accustomed to war, have succeeded in compelling
a lame pastor, four cowherds, and five children, to
surrender upon terms ! " Fontaine again expostulated
with the captain, and informed him that, being held a
prisoner in breach of the treaty under which he had
surrendered, he must be prepared for the retaliation of
the English government upon French prisoners of war.
The captain would not, however, give up Fontaine
without a ransom, and demanded £100. Madame
Fontaine contrived to borrow £30, and sent it to the
captain, with a promise of the remainder. The cap-
tain could not wait, but he liberated Fontaine, and
carried off his son Pierre to St. Malo, as a hostage for
the payment of the balance.
When the news of this attack on the fort at Bear-
haven reached the English Government, and they were
informed of the violation of the conditions under
which Fontaine had surrendered, they ordered the
CHAP. xvn. FONTAINE ABANDONS SEARIIAVEN. 309
French officers at Kinsale and Plymouth to be put
in irons until Fontaine's son was sent back. This
produced an immediate effect. In the course of a few
months Pierre Fontaine was set at liberty and returned
to his parents, and the balance of the ransom was never
claimed. The commander of the forces in Ireland
made Fontaine an immediate grant of £100, to relieve
him from the destitution to which he had been reduced
by the plunder of his dwelling. The county of Cork
afterwards paid him £800 as damages, on its being
proved that Irishmen had been principally concerned
in the attack and robbery; and Fontaine's two sons
were awarded the position and rights of half-pay
officers, while his own pension was continued. The
fort at Bearhaven, having been completely desolated,
was abandoned ; and Fontaine, with the grant made to
him by government, and the sum awarded by the
county, left the lawless neighbourhood which he had
so long laboured to improve and to defend, and pro-
ceeded to Dublin, where he settled for the remainder
of his life as a teacher of langauges, mathematics, and
fortification. His undertaking proved successful, and
he ended his days there in peace. His noble wile died
in 1721, and he himself followed her shortly after,
respected and beloved by all who knew him.1
ail Jb'untaiuc's near Mauiy, Fredericksville Parish,
relatives took refuge in England. Louisa County, Virginia, from
His mother and three of his whom Mathew Fontaine Maury.
brothers were refugees in Lon- LL.D., lately Captain in the
don. One of them afterwards Confederate States Navy, and
became a Protestant minister in author of The Physical Geo-
Germany. One of his uncles, graphy of the Sea, is lineally de-
Peter, was pastor of the Pest scended. The above particulars
House Chapel in London. Two are for the most part taken from
aunts — one a widow, the other the ' ' Memoirs of a Huguenot
married to a refugee merchant — Family ; translated and compiled
were also settled in London. from the original Autobiography
Fontaine's sons and daughters of the Kev. James Fontaine, and
mostly emigrated to Virginia, other family manuscripts, by
where their descendants are still ANN MAURY " (another of the
to be found. His daughter Mary descendants of Fontaine) : New
Anne married the Kev. James York, 1853.
310 FRENCH COLONY AT WATERFORD. CHAP. xvil.
We return to the subject of the settlements made by
other refugees in the southern parts of Ireland. In
1697, about fifty retired officers, who had served in the
army of William III., settled with their families at
Youghal, on the invitation of the mayor and corpora-
tion, who offered them the freedom of the town on
payment of the nominal sum of sixpence each. It
does not appear that the refugees were sufficiently
numerous to maintain a pastor, though the Rev. Arthur
d'Anvers for some time privately ministered to them.
Most probably, from the circumstance of their com-
paratively small number, they speedily ceased to exist
as a distinctive portion of the community, though
names of French origin are still common in the
town.
The French refugee colony at Waterford was of
considerably greater importance. Being favourably
situated for trade near the mouth of the river Suir,
with a rich agricultural country behind it, Waterford
offered many inducements to the refugee merchants
and traders to settle there. In the Act passed by the
Irish Parliament in 1662, and re-enacted in 1672, "for
encouraging Protestant strangers and others to inhabit
o o t o
Ireland," Waterford is specially named as one of the
cities selected for the settlement of the refugees. Some
twenty years later, in 1693, the corporation of Water-
ford, being desirous not only that the disbanded
Huguenot officers and soldiers should settle in the
place, but also that persons skilled in the arts and
manufactures should become citizens, ordered, " that
the city and liberties do provide habitations for fifty
families of the French Protestants to drive a trade of
linen-manufacture, — they bringing with them a stock
of money and materials for their subsistence until flax
can be sown and produced on the lands adjacent ;
and that the freedom of the city be given them gratis."
At the same time, the choir of the old Franciscan
monastery was assigned to them, with the assent of
the bishop, Dr. Nathaniel Foy, himself descended from
CHAP. XVII. FRENCH COLONY AT PORTARLINGTOX. 311
a Protestant refugee, for the purposes of a French
church, the corporation guaranteeing a stipend of £40
a year towards the support of their pastor, the Rev.
David Gervais, afterwards a prebendary of Lismore
Cathedral.
These liberal measures had the effect of inducing a
considerable number of refugees to establish themselves
at Waterford, and carry on various branches of trade
and manufacture. Some of them became leading mer-
chants in the place, and rose to wealth and distinction.
Thus, John Espaignet was sheriff of the city in 1707;
Jeremy Gayot in 1709 ; and the two brothers Vashon
served, the one as mayor in 1726, the other as sheriff
in 1735. James Henry Reynette afterwards held office
both as sheriff and mayor. The foreign wine-trade of
the south of Ireland was almost exclusively conducted
through Waterford by the French wine -merchants,
some of their principal stores being in the immediate
neighbourhood of the French church. The refugees
also made vigorous efforts to establish the linen-manu-
facture in Waterford, in which they were materially
assisted by Louis Crommelin and John Latrobe in the
first instance, and by Bishop Chenevix in the next ;
and for many years linen was one of the staple trades
of the place, although it ceased shortly after the intro-
duction of power-looms.
Another colony of the refugees was established at
Portarlington, which town they may almost be said to
have founded. The first settlers consisted principally
of retired French officers as well as privates, who had
served in the army of King William. We have already
referred to the circumstances connected with the for-
mation of this colony by the Marquis de Ruvigny,
created Earl of Galway, to whom William granted the
estate of Portarlington, which had become forfeited to
the crown by the treason and outlawry of Sir Patrick
Grant, its former owner. Although the grant was
revoked by the English Parliament, and the Earl
ceased to own the Portarlington estate, he nevertheless
312 THE EXILES AT PORT ARLINGTON. CHAP. xvil.
continued to take the same warm interest as before in
the prosperity of the refugee colony.1
Among the early settlers at Portarlington were the
Marquis de Paray, the Sieur de Haute ville, Louis le
Blanc, Sieur de Pierce, Charles de Ponthieu, Captain
d' Alnuis and his brother, Abel Pelissier, David d' Arripe,
Keuben de la Rochefoucauld, the Sieur de la Boissere,
Guy de la Blachiere, De Bonneval, De Villier, Fleury,
Champagne, De Bostaquet, Franquefort, Chatcauneuf,
La Beaume, Montpeton du Languedoc, Vicomte de
Laval, Pierre Goulin, Jean la Ferriere, De Gaudry,
Jean Lafaurie, Abel de Ligonier, De Vignoles, Anthoine
de Ligonier, and numerous others.
The greater number of these noblemen and gentle-
men had served with distinction under the Duke of
Schomberg, La Melonniere, La Caillemotte, Carnbon,
and other commanders, in the service of William III.
They had been for the most part men of considerable
estates in their own country, though they were now
content to live as exiles on the half-pay granted them by
the country of their adoption. When they first came in-
to the neighbourhood, the town of Portarlington could
scarcely be said to exist. The village of Cootletoodra,
as it was formerly called, was only a collection of
miserable huts unfit for human residence ; and until the
1 The Bulletin de la Societt these families to the sea-board ;
de VHistoire du Protestantisms after which, the means would be
frangaig (1868, p. 69), contains provided for their embarkation for
a letter addressed by the Earl Ireland. " The King," he says, "is
of Galway to David Barbut, a so touched at the misery with
refugee residing at Berne, in which these families are threat-
January, 1693,wherein he informs ened where they are. and perceives
him that King William is greatly so clear lyhow valuable their settle-
concerned at the distress of the ment would be in his kingdom of
French refugees in Switzerland, Ireland, that he is resolved to
and desires that 600 families provide all the money that may
should proceed to Ireland and be required for the purpose. We
settle there. He adds that the must not lose any time on this
KinghasrecommendedtheProtes- matter; and I hope that by the
tant Princes of Germany, and the month of April, or May at the
States-General of Holland, to pay latest, these families will be on
the expense of the transport of their way to join us."
CHAP. xvn. POUT ARLINGTON A MODEL TO \YN. 313
dwellings designed for the reception of the exiles bj
the Earl of Galway could be built, they resided in the
adjoining villages of Doolough, Monasterevin, Cloney-
gown, and the ancient village of Lea.
Portarlington shortly became the model town of the
province. The dwellings of the strangers were dis-
tinguished for their neatness and comfort. Their farms
and gardens were patterns of tidiness and good manage-
ment. They introduced new fruit-trees from abroad ;
amongst others the black Italian walnut and the jargo-
nelle pear, — specimens of which still flourish at Portar-
lington in vigorous old age. The planter of these trees
fought at the Boyne as an ensign in the regiment of La
Melonniere. The immigrants also introduced the
" espalier " with success ; and their fruit of all kinds be-
came widely celebrated. Another favourite branch of
cultivation was flowers, of which they imported many
new sorts; while their vegetables were unmatched in
Ireland.
The exiles formed a highly select society, composed,
as it was, of ladies and gentlemen of high culture, of
pure morals, and of gentle birth and manners, — so dif-
ferent from the roystering Irish gentry of the time.
Though they had suffered grievous wrongs at the hands
of their own countrymen, they were contented, cheer-
ful, and even gay.1 Traditions still exist of the mili-
tary refugees, in their scarlet cloaks, sitting in groups
under the old oaks in the market-place, sipping tea out
of their small china cups. They had also their balls,
and ordinaries, and "ridottos" (places of pleasant
resort) ; and a great deal of pleasant visiting went on
amongst them. They continued to enjoy their favourite
wine of Bordeaux, which was imported for them in
1 An Irish correspondent, how- choly, cast of countenance, — the
ever, extensively acquainted with same sort of sad expression which
the descendants of the Huguenots, may be observed in the Polish
says that. " so far as his observa- Jews, doubtless the result of long
tion goes, they, for the most part, persecution and suffering."
bear a pensive, not to say melan-
314 CHURCH AT PORTARLINGTON. CHAI>. xvn.
considerable quantities by their fellow-exiles, the
French wine-merchants of Waterford and Dublin.
There were also numerous refugees of a humbler
class settled in the place, who carried on various trades.
Thus the Fouberts carried on a manufacture of linen.
Many of the minor tradesmen were French — bakers,
butchers, masons, smiths, carpenters, tailors, and
shoemakers. The Blancs, butchers, transmitted the
business from father to son for more than 150 years;
and they are still recognisable at Portarlington under
the name of Blong. The Micheaus, farmers, had been
tenants on the estates of the Robillard family in
Champagne : they were now tenants of the same family
at Portarlington. One of the Micheaus was sexton of
the French church of the town, until within the last few
years. La Borde the mason, Capel the blacksmith, and
Gautier the carpenter, came from the neighbourhood of
Bordeaux; and their handiwork, much of which still
exists at Portarlington and the neighbourhood, bears
indications of their foreign training and artistic culture.
The refugees, as was their invariable practice where
they settled in sufficient numbers, early formed them-
selves into a congregation, and a church was erected
for their accommodation, in which a long succession of
able ministers officiated, the last of whom was Charles
de Vignoles, afterwards Dean of Ossory.1 The service
was conducted in French down to the year 1817; since
1 The Register of the French 5 Octr. 1696 — Belagniere
church is still preserved. The 1 Deer. 1696 — 98 Gillet
entries begin in 1694. The 15 May 1698 — Durassus
Register contains the names, „ „ „ Ducasse
families, and localities in France, 26 June 1698 — 1702 Daillon.
from whence the exiles came. Anglicans.
The first volume still wears the 3 Octr. 1702—29 De Bonneval
coarse brown paper cover with 14 Aug. 1729 — 39 DesVoeux
which it was originally invested 17 Feb. 1739 — 67 Caillard
by its foreign guardians nearly 2 Sep. 1767 — 93 Des Vceux
190 years ago. The following is Jan. 1793 — 18 17 Vignoles j^tf
a list of the pastors of the Port- 1817 — Charles Vig-
arlington Church : — nolesjilt.
Calvinists.
Depuis 1694—86 Gillet
CHAP. xvil. HIGH STANDARD OF EMIGRATION. 31ft
then it has been discontinued, the language having
by that time ceased to be understood in the neighbour-
hood.
Besides a church, the refugees also possessed a school,
which long enjoyed a high reputation for the classical
education which it provided for the rising generation.
At an early period, the boys seem to have been clothed
as well as educated, the memorandum-book of an old
officer of the JBoyne containing an entry, April 20, 1727,
" making six sutes of cloths for ye blewbois, at 18 pee.
per sute, 00 : 09 : 00." M. Le Fevre, founder of the
Charter Schools, was the first schoolmaster in Port-
arlington. He is said to have been the father of Sterne's
" poor sick lieutenant."1 The Bonnevaux and Tersons
were amongst the subsequent teachers, and many sons
and daughters of the principal Protestants in Ireland
passed under their hands. Among the more distin-
guished men who received the best part of their educa-
tion at Portarlington, may be mentioned the Marquis of
Wellesley and his brother the Earl of Mornington,
the Marquis of Westmeath, the Right Hon. John Wil-
son Croker, Sir Henry Ellis (of the British Museum),
Daniel W. Webber, and many others.
Lady Morgan, referring in her Memoirs to the
French colony at Portarlington, observes: "The dis-
persion of the French Huguenots, who settled in great
numbers in Ireland, was one of the greatest boons con-
ferred by the misgovernment of other countries upon
our own. Eminent preachers, eminent lawyers, and
clever statesmen, whose names are not unknown to the
literature and science of France, occupied high places
in the professions in Dublin. Of these I may mention,
1 The Portarlington Register Favre. Lieutenant a la pentioni
contains the following record : — dont 1'ame estait allee a Dieu, son
" Sepulture du Dimanche 23e corps a e~te enterr^ par Monsieur
Mars, 1717-18. Le Samedy 22e Bonneval, ministre de cette Eglise
du present mois entre minuet et dans le cemitiere de ce lieu. A
une heure. est mort en la foy du Lijronier Bonneval ™ip. Louis
Seigneur et dans Tesp^ranre de la Buliod."
glorieuse resurrection, Monsieur
316 INDUSTRIAL SETTLEMENTS IN IRELAND. CHAr.xvn.
as personal acquaintances, the Saurins, the Lefanus,
Espinasses, Favers, Corneilles, Le Bas, and many others
whose families still remain in the Irish metropolis."1
It may here be noted that the social standard of the
Huguenot immigration into Ireland was generally higher
than that of the same immigration into England, prin-
cipally because of the large number of retired French
officers, most of them of noble and gentle blood, who
settled at Portarlington, Waterford, and the other
southern Irish towns, shortly after the conclusion of the
peace of Utrecht. Some of these retired veterans bore
the noblest historic names in France. Their sons and
their daughters intermarried, and thus kept up the
Huguenot line, usually to the second and third, and
often to the fourth generation. Their martial instincts
survived their separation from the country of their
birth ; and to this day a large proportion of the de-
scendants of the Huguenot settlers in Ireland are to be
found serving as officers in the British army ; whilst
many others belong to the Church and the learned pro-
fessions. Thus, among the MSS 2 left by Dr. Letablere,
Dean of Tuam — son of Rend de la Douespe, representa-
tive of the illustrious family of L'Establere in Picardy
— we find lists of persons descended from Huguenot
refugees in Ireland; among whom there were two gene-
rals, six colonels, five majors, and twenty-four captains,
besides subaltern officers. At the same time there
were then serving in the Irish Church, one bishop of
Huguenot extraction (Dr. Chevenix), three deans
(Brocas, Champagne, and Letablere), and thirty-three
clergymen, besides nineteen ministers of French
churches in different parts of Ireland. The Dean's
papers also contain a list of about a hundred persons
established in Dublin in 1763, carrying on business
there as bankers, physicians, attorneys, merchants,
1 LADY MORGAN — Memoirs, i. by 11. W. Litton, Esq., one of the
106. surviving representatives of Dr.
2 These papers have been Letablere by the female line
kindly submitted for our inspec-
CHAP. XVTI. THE INDUSTRY OF BELFAST. 317
goldsmiths, manufacturers, and traders of various
kinds.
It is to be regretted that the industrial settlements
of the refugee French and Flemings in Ireland, were
generally so much smaller than those which they
effected in different parts of England, — otherwise the
condition of that unfortunate country would probably
have been very different from that in which we now find
it. The only part of Ireland in which the Huguenots left
a permanent impression was in the north, where the
branches of industry which they planted took firm
root, and continue to flourish with extraordinary
vigour to this day. But in the south it was very
different. Though the natural facilities for trade at
Cork, Limerick, and Waterford, were much greater
than those of the northern towns, the refugees never
obtained any firm footing i»r made any satisfactory
progress in that quarter. TLeir colonies at first main-
tained only a sickly existence, and they gradually fell
into decay. The last blow was given to them by
Strikes.
One has only to look at Belfast and the busy hives
of industry in that neighbourhood, and to note the
condition of the northern province of Ulster — existing
under precisely the same laws as govern the south, —
to find how -seriously the social progress of Ireland has
been affected by the want of that remunerative employ-
ment which the refugees were always so instrumental
in providing in the districts in which they settled, —
wherever they found a population willing to be taught
by them, and to follow in the path which they unde-
viatingly pursued — of peaceful, contented, and honour-
able iridustrv.
CFAPTEK XVIII.
DESCENDANTS OF THE KEFUGEES.
ALTHOUGH 300 years have passed since the first reli-
gious persecutions in Flanders and France compelled
so large a number of Protestants to fly from those
countries and take refuge in England, and although
nearly 200 years have passed since the second great
emigration from France took place in the reign of
Louis XIV., the descendants of the "gentle and profit-
able strangers " are still recognisable amongst us. In
the course of the generations which have come and
gone since the dates of their original settlement, they
have laboured skilfully and diligently, for the advance-
ment of British trade, commerce, and manufactures ;
while there is scarcely a branch of literature, science, or
art, in which they have not honourably distinguished
themselves.
Three hundred years form a long period in the life
of a nation. During that time many of the distinctive
characteristics of the original refugees must necessarily
have become effaced in the persons of their descend-
ants. Indeed, by far the greater number of them
before long became completely Anglicised, and ceased
to be traceable except by their names; and even these
have for the most part become converted into names of
English sound.
So long as the foreigners continued to cherish the
hope of returning to their native country, on the pos-
sible cessation of the persecutions there, they waited
and worked on, with that end in view. But as the
CHAP. xvin. DESCENDANTS OF THE FLEMINGS. 319
persecutions only waxed hotter, they at length gradu-
ally gave up all hope of returning. They claimed and
obtained letters of naturalisation ; and though many
of them continued for several generations to worship
in their native language, they were content to live
and die as English subjects. Their children grew up
amidst English associations, and they desired to forget
that their fathers had been fugitives and foreigners in
the land. They cared not to remember the language
or to retain the names which marked them as distinct
from the people amongst whom they lived ; and hence
many of the descendants of the refugees, in the second
or third generation, abandoned their foreign names,
and gradually ceased to frequent the distinctive places
of worship which their fathers had founded.
Indeed, many of the early Flemings had no sooner
settled in England and become naturalised, than they
threw off their foreign names and assumed English
ones. Thus, as we have seen, Hoek, the Flemish
brewer in South wark, assumed the name of Leeke;
while Haestricht, the Flemish manufacturer at Bow,
took that of James. Mr. Pryme, formerly professor of
political economy in the University of Cambridge, and
representative of that town in Parliament, whose
ancestors were refugees from Ypres in Flanders, has
informed us that his grandfather dropped the " de la "
originally prefixed to the family name, in consequence
of the strong anti-Gallican feeling which prevailed in
this country during the Seven Years' War of 1756-63,
though his son has since assumed it ; and the same
circumstance doubtless led many others to change
their foreign names to those of an English sound.
Nevertheless, a large number of purely Flemish
names are still to be found in various parts of England
and Ireland, where the foreigners originally settled.
They have been on the whole better preserved in the
rural districts than in London, where the social friction
was greater, and rubbed off the foreign peculiarities
more quickly. In the lace towns of the west of Eng-
320 THE DES BOUVERYES. CHAP. xvm.
land such names as Raymond, Spiller, Brock, Stocker,
Groot, Rochett, and Kettel, are still common ; and the
same trades have continued in some of their families
for generations. The Walloon Goupes, who settled in
Wiltshire as clothmakers more than 300 years since,
are still known there as the Guppys, and the Thun-
guts as Dogoods and Toogoods.
In the account of the early refugee Protestants
given in the preceding pages, it has been pointed out
that the first settlers in England came principally
from Lille, Turcoing, and the towns situated along both
.sides of the present French frontier — the country of
the French Walloons, though then subject to the crown
of Spain. Among the first of these refugees was one
Laurent des Bouveryes,1 a native of Sainghin, near
Lille. He first settled at Sandwich as a maker of
serges, in 1567; after which, in the following year, he
removed to Canterbury to join the Walloon settlement
there. The Des Bouveryes family prospered greatly.
In the third generation we find Edward, grandson of
the refugee, a wealthy Turkey merchant in London,
In the fourth generation the head of the family was
created a baronet ; in the fifth, a viscount ; and in the
sixth, an earl ; the original Laurent des Bouveryes
being at this day represented in the House of Lords
by the Earl of Radnor.
About the same time that the Des Bouveryes came
into England from Lille, the Hugessens arrived from
Dunkirk, and settled at Dover. They afterwards
removed to Sandwich, where they prospered ; and in
the course of a few generations, we find them enrolled
among the county aristocracy of Kent, and their name
borne by the ancient family of the Knatchbulls. It is
not the least remarkable circumstance connected with
this family, that a member of it now represents the
1 The Bouveryes were men of in 1664, it is stated, "Lafamille
mark in their native country. de Bouverie est reconnu passer
Thus, in the Histoire de Cain- plusieurs siecles entre les patrices
bray ct du Cambrcmsis, published de Camhray."
CHAP. xvur. FA MILIES DESCENDED Fit OMFLEM1NGS.Z21
borough of Sandwich, one of the earliest seats of the
refugees in England.
Among other notable Flemish immigrants may be
numbered the Houblons, who gave the Bank of
England its first governor, and from one of whose
daughters the late Lord Palmerston was lineally
descended.1 The Van Sittarts, Jansens, Courteens,
Van Milderts, Vanlores, Corsellis, and Vannecks,2 were
widely and honourably known in their day as
London bankers or merchants. Sir Matthew Decker,
besides being eminent as a London merchant, was
distinguished for the excellence of his writings on
commercial subjects, then little understood. He made
an excellent member of Parliament: he was elected
for Bishop's Castle in 1719.
Various members of the present landed gentry
trace their descent from the Flemish refugees. Thus
Jacques Hoste, the founder of the present family
(represented by Sir W. L. S. Hoste, Bart.), fled from
Bruges, of which his father was governor in 1569 ;
the Tyssens (now represented by W. Q. Tyssen
Amhurst, Esq., of Foulden) fled from Ghent ; and the
Cruses of Norfolk fled from Hownescout in Flanders.
All of them took refuge in England.
Among artists, architects, and engineers of Flemish
descent we find Grinling Gibbons, the wood-sculptor ;
Mark Gerrard, the portrait-painter ; Sir John Van-
brugh, the architect and play-writer; Richard Cos way,
R.A.,3 the miniature-painter; and Vermuyden and
Westerdyke, the engineers employed to reclaim the
drowned lands in the Fens. The Tradescants, the
celebrated antiquarians, were also of the same origin.*
1 Anne, sister and heir of Sir * Cosway belonged to a family,
Richard Houblon, was married originally Flemish, long settled
to Henry Temple, created Lord at Tiverton, Devon. His father
Palmerston in 1722. was master of the grammar-
2 The Vanneck family is now school there.
represented in the peerage by * The Tatler, vol. i., ed. 1786,
Baron Huntingfield. p. 435, in a note, says : " John
21
322 THE FLEMISH DE GROTES. CHAP. xvm.
One of the most distinguished families of the
Netherlands was that of the De Grotes or Groots,
of which Hugo Grotius was an illustrious member.
When the Spanish persecutions were at their height
in the Low Countries, several of the Protestant De
Grotes, who were eminent merchants at Antwerp,
fled from that city, and took refuge, some in England
and others in Germany. Several of the Flemish De
Grotes had before then settled in England. Thus,
among the letters of Denization mentioned in Mr.
Brewer's Calendar of State Papers, Henry VIII., we
find the following : —
" Ambrose de Grote, merchant of the Duchy of Brabant
(Letters of Denization, Patent llth June, 1510, 2 Henry
VIII.)
" 12 Feby., 1512-13. — Protection for one year for Ambrose
and Peter de Grote, merchants of Andwarp, in Brabant, going
in the retinue of Sir Gilbert Talbot, Deputy of Calais."
One of the refugee Grotes is supposed to have
settled as a merchant at Bremen, from which city the
grandfather of the late George Grote, the historian of
Greece, came over to London early in last century,
and established a mercantile house, and afterwards a
banking house, both of which flourished. Mr. Grote
was also of Huguenot blood through his mother, who
was descended from Colonel Blosset, commander of
"Blosset's Foot," the scion of an ancient Protestant
family of Touraine. He was an officer in the army of
Queen Anne, and the proprietor of a considerable estate
in the county of Dublin.
The great French immigration, which occurred at
the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, having been
the most recent, has left much more noticeable traces
Tradescant, senior, is supposed to were very ingenious persons, and
have been of Dutch or Flemish were held in esteem for their
extraction, and to have settled in early promotion and culture of
this kingdom probably about the botany and natural history. The
end of Queen Elizabeth's reign. son formed the Tradescaut mu-
or in the beginning of the reign seum at Oxford,
of James I." Father and son
CHAP, xviii. CHANGES IN FRENCH FAMILY NAMES. 323
in English family history and nomenclature, notwith-
standing the large proportion of the refugees and their
descendants who threw aside their French names, or,
rather, translated them into English. Thus, L'Oiseau
became Bird ; Le Jeune, Young ; Du Bois, Wood ; Le
Blanc, White ; Le Noir, Black ; Le Maur, Brown ; Le
Roy, King ; Lacroix, Cross ; Le Monnier, Miller ; Ton-
nelier, Cooper; Le Maitre, Masters; Dulau, Waters;
Sauvage, Savage and Wild. Some of the Lefevres
changed their name to the English equivalent of
Smith, as was the case with the ancestor of Sir Culling
Eardley Smith, Bart., a French refugee whose original
name was Le Fevre. Many names were strangely
altered in their conversion from French into English.
Jolifemme was freely translated into Pretyinan1 — a
name well known in the Church; Momerie became
Mummery, a common name at Dover; and Planche
became Plank, of which there are still instances at
Canterbury and Southampton. At Oxford, the name
of Willamise was traced back to Villebois ; Taillebois
became Talboys ; Le Coq, Laycock ; Bouchier, Butcher
or Boxer ; Boyer, Bower ; Bois, Boys ; Mesurier, Mea-
sure; Mahieu, Mayhew; Bourgeois, Burgess; Souverain,
Suffren ; De Vere, Weir ; Coquerel, Cockerill ; Drouet,
Drewitt; D'Aeth, Death; D'Orleans, Dorling. Other
pure French names were dreadfully vulgarised. Thus
Conde became Gundy ; Chapuis, Shoppee ; De Preux,
Diprose ; De Moulins, Mullins ; Pelletier, Pelter ;
Huyghens, Huggins or Higgins ; and Beaufoy, Boffy ! 2
1 A correspondent informs us, was, in the orthography of hii
that some years since he saw ancestors, a Despard.
over a shop door at Dover the Among other conversions of
words " Susanne Handsome- French into English names may
bodie," probably a rough render- be mentioned the following : —
ing of the same name of " Joli- Letellier, converted into Taylour;
femme.1' Brasseur into Brassey ; Batchelier
2 Mr. Lower, in his Patrony- into Bachelor ; Lenoir into Len-
nica JSritannica, suggests that nard; De Lean into Dillon; Pigou
Richard Despair, a poor man into Pigott; Breton into Britton;
buried at East Grinstead in 1726, Dieudonn into Dudney ; Bau-
324 FRENCH NAMES PRESER VED. CHAP. xvm.
Many pure French names have, however, been pre-
served ; and one need only turn over the pages of a
London Directory to recognise the large proportion
which the descendants of the Huguenots continue to
form, of the modern population of the metropolis.
But a short time since, in reading the report of a
meeting of the district board of works at Wandsworth
— where the refugees settled in such numbers as to
form a considerable congregation — we recognised the
names of Lobjoit, Baringer, Fourdrinier, Poupart, and
others, unmistakably French. Such names are con-
stantly " cropping out " in modern literature, science,
art, and manufactures. Thus we recognise those of
Delaine and Fonblanque in the press; Rigaud and
Roget in science ; Dargan (originally Dargent) in
railway construction ; Pigou in gunpowder ; Gillot in
steel pens ; Courage in beer ; and Courtauld in silk.
That the descendants of the Huguenots have vindi-
cated and continued to practise that liberty of thought
and worship for which their fathers sacrificed so much,
is sufficiently obvious from the fact that among them
we find men holding such widely different views as
the brothers Newman, Father Faber and James Mar-
tineau, Dr. Pusey and the Rev. Hugh Stowell. Dr.
Arnold's mother was a Delafield, and the Rev. Sidney
Smith's a D'Olier. The latter was accustomed to at-
tribute much of his constitutional gaiety to his mother,
whom he characterised as a woman " of noble counte-
nance and as noble a mind."
From the peerage to the working classes, the de-
scendants of the refugees pervade, to this day, the
various ranks of English society. The Queen of
England herself is related to them, through her
descent from Sophia Dorothea, grand-daughter of the
dorr into Baudry ; Guilbert into Savery ; Gebon into Gibbon ;
Gilbert ; Koch into Cox ; Re- Scardeville into Sharwell ; Leve-
nalls into Reynolds ; Merineau reau into Lever ; and so on with
into Meryon ; Petit into Pettit ; many more.
Reveil into Revill ; Saveloy into
CHAP, xviil. THE QUEEN AND THE PEERAGE. 325
Marquis d'Olbreuse, a Protestant nobleman of Poitou.
The Marquis was one of the numerous French exiles
who took refuge in Brandenburg on the Revocation of
the Edict of Nantes. The Duke of Zell married his
only daughter, whose issue was Sophia Dorothea, the
wife of George Louis, Elector of Hanover, afterwards
George I. of England. The son of Sophia Dorothea
succeeded to the English throne as George II, and
her daughter married Frederick William, afterwards
King of Prussia; and thus the Huguenot blood con-
tinues to run in the royal families of the two great
Protestant states of the north.
Several descendants of French Huguenots have
become elevated to the British peerage. Of these the
most ancient is the family of Trench, originally De la
Tranche, the head of which is the Earl of Clancarty.
Frederick, Lord of La Tranche in Poitou, took refuge
in England about the year 1574, shortly after the
Massacre of St. Bartholomew. He settled for a time
in Northumberland, from whence he passed over into
Ireland. Of his descendants, one branch founded the
peerage of Clancarty, and another that of Ashtown.
Several members of the family have held high offices
in church and state ; among whom may be mentioned
Power le Poer Trench, the last Archbishop of Tuam,
and the present Archbishop of Dublin, in whom the
two Huguenot names of Trench and Chenevix are
honourably united.
Among other peers of Huguenot origin are Lord
North wick, descended from John Rushout, a French
refugee established in London in the reign of Charles
I. ; Lord de Blaquiere, descended from John de
Blacquire, a scion of a noble French family, who
settled as a merchant in London shortly after the
Revocation; and Lord Rendlesham, descended from
Peter Thelusson, grandson of a French refugee who
about the same time took refuge in Switzerland.
Besides these elevations to the peerage of descend-
ants of Huguenots in the direct male line, many of the
326 THE HUG UENOTS AND THE PEEP A GE. CHAP. xvm.
daughters of distinguished refugees and their offspring
formed unions with noble families, and led to a further
intermingling of the blood of the Huguenots with
that of the English aristocracy. Thus the blood of the
noble family of Ruviguy mingles with that of Russell '
(Duke of Bedford) and Cavendish (Duke of Devon-
shire) ; of Schomberg with that of Osborne (Duke of
Leeds) ; of Champagne' (n£e De la R-ochefoucauld)
with that of Forbes (Earl of Granard) ; of Portal and
Boileau with that of Elliott (Earl of Minto) ; of Auriol
with that of Hay Drummond (Earl of Kinnoul) ; of
D'Albiac with that of Innes-Ker (Duke of Rox-
burghe) ; of La Touche with that of Butler-Danvers
(Earl of Lanesborough) ; of Montolieu with that of
Murray (Lord Elibank) ; and so on in numerous other
instances.
Among recent peerages are those of Taunton,
Eversley, and Romilly, all direct descendants of Hu-
guenots. The first Labouchere who settled in England
was Peter Caesar Labouchere. He had originally taken
refuge from the persecution of Louis XIV. in Holland,
where he joined the celebrated house of Hope at
Amsterdam ; and he came over to London as the
representative of that firm. He eventually acquired
wealth and distinction; and the head of the family now
sits in the House of Lords as Baron Taunton.
The Lefevre family came originally from Normandy,
where they held considerable landed property. Peter
Lefevre, born in 1650, had scarcely succeeded to his
paternal estates, when he was forced to fly with his
1 Rachel, daughter of Daniel William Lord Russell, known as
de Massue, Seigneur de Ruvigny, " patriot." Every one has heard
married Thomas Wriothesley, of his celebrated wife, the daugh-
Earl of Southampton, in 1634. ter of a Ruvigny, whose son
The- Countess died in 1637, leav- afterwards became second Duke
ing two daughters, one of whom, of Bedford, and whose two
Elizabeth, afterwards married daughters married, one the Duke
the Earl of Gainsborough, and of Devonshire, and the other the
the other, Rachel, married, first Marquis of Granby.
Lord Vaughan, and secondly
CHAP. rmi. THE LEFBVRS8 AtfD HOMTLL79. 327
family into England, rather than renounce his faith.
He first settled at Canterbury, and there embarked in
trade with the capital he had brought with him. One
of his sons, John, entered the army, and rose to the
rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, serving under Marlborough
through his campaigns in the Low Countries. He
afterwards resided at Walthamstow, and held the office
of High Sheriff of Essex. The younger brother, Isaac
(from whom Lord Eversley, late Speaker of the House
of Commons, is lineally descended), was put apprentice
to trade at Canterbury ; and, after his father's death,
he removed to Spitalfields, where he set up for himself
as a scarlet dyer, and was very successful. His son
John possessed considerable property at Old Ford and
Bromley, which is still in the family; and his only
daughter Helena having married Charles Shaw of
Lincoln's Inn, in 1789, their descendants have since
borne the name and arms of the Lefevres.
The story of the Romilly family is well known
through the autobiography left by the late Sir Samuel
Romilly and published by his sons.1 The great-grand-
father of Sir Samuel was a considerable landed pro-
prietor in the neighbourhood of Montpellier. Though
a Protestant by conviction, he conformed to Roman
Catholicism, with the object of saving the family pro-
perty for the benefit of his only son. Yet he secretly
worshipped after his own principles, as well as brought
up his son in them. The youth indeed imbibed Protes-
tantism so deeply, that in the year 1701, when only
seventeen, he went to Geneva for the sole purpose of
receiving the sacrament, — the administration of the
office by Protestant ministers in France still rendering
them liable, if detected, to death or condemnation to
the galleys for life. At Geneva, young Romilly met
the celebrated preacher Saurin, then in the height of
his fame, who happened to be there on a visit. The
1 Memmrs of tlie Life of Sir Samuel Romilly written by himself.
F.'lited by his Sons. 3 Vols. London. 1840.
328 SIR SAMUEL ROMILLY. CHAP. xvm.
result of his conversations with Saurin was the for-
mation in his mind of a fixed determation to leave for
ever his native country, his parents, and the inheritance
which awaited him, and trust to his own industry
for a subsistence in some foreign land, where he might
be free to worship God according to conscience.
Young Romilly accordingly set out for London ; and
it was not until he had landed in England that he
apprised his father of the resolution which he had formed.
After a few 3rears' residence in London, where he
married Judith de Monsallier, the daughter of another
refugee, Mr. Romilly began the business of a wax-
bleacher at Hoxton, his father supplying him from
time to time with money. But a sad reverse of fortune
ensued on the death of his father. A distant relative,
who was a Catholic, took possession of the family estate,
and further remittances from France were stopped.
Then followed difficulty, bankruptcy, and distress;
and the landowner's son, unable to bear up under his
calamities, sank under them at an early age, leaving a
widow and a family of eight children almost entirely
unprovided for.
The youngest son, Peter, father of the future Sir
Samuel, was bound apprentice to a French refugee
jeweller, named Lafosse, whose shop was in Broad
Street. On arriving at manhood he went to Paris,
where he worked as a journeyman, saving money
enough to make an excursion as far south as Moutpellier,
to view the family estate, now in the possession of
strangers and irrecoverably lost, since it could only be
redeemed, if at all, by apostasy. The jeweller eventu-
ally returned to London, married a Miss Garnault, — des-
cended like himself from a Protestant refugee, — and
began business on his own account. He seems to have
enjoyed a moderate degree of prosperity, living care-
fully and frugally, bringing up his family virtuously
and religiously, and giving them as good an education as
his comparatively slender means would admit, until
the death ot a rich relative of his wife, a Mr. de la
CHAP. xvm. THE BOILEAVX AND CRESPIGXYS. 329
Haize, — who left considerable legacies to each member
of the family, — enabled Mr. Romilly to article his son
Samuel to a clerk in chancery, and to enter upon the
profession in which he acquired so much distinc-
tion. It is unnecessary to describe his career, which
has been so simply and beautifully related by himself,
or to trace the further history of the family, the head
of which now sits in the House of Lords, under the
title of Baron Romilly.
The baronetage, as well as the peerage, includes
many descendants of the Huguenots. Jacques Boileau
was Lord of Castlenau and St. Croix, near Nismes, in
the neighbourhood of which the persecution long raged
so furiously. He was the father of a family of twenty-
two children, and could not readily leave France at the
Revocation; but, being known as a Protestant, and
refusing to be converted, he was arrested and placed
under restraint, in which condition he died. His son
Charles fled, first into Holland, and afterwards into
England, where he entered the army, obtained the rank
of captain, and commanded a corps of French gentle-
men under Marlborough at the battle of Blenheim.
He afterwards settled as a wine-merchant at Dublin,
and was succeeded by his son. The family prospered ;
and the great-grandson of Marlborough's captain was
promoted to a baronetcy, — the present wearer of the
title being Sir John Boileau.
The Crespignys also belonged to a noble family in
Lower Normandy. Claude Champion, Lord of Cres-
pigny, was an officer in the French army ; but at the
Revocation he fled into England, accompanied by his
wife, the Comtesse de Vierville, and a family of eight
children, — two of whom were carried on board the
ship in which they sailed, in baskets. De Crespigny
entered the British army, and served as colonel under
Marlborough. The present head of the family is Sir
C. W. Champion Crespigny, Bart.
Elias Bouhe'rau, M.D., an eminent physician in
Rochelle, being debarred the practice of his profession
330 HUGUENOT BAROXETS. CHAP. xvui.
by the edict of Louis XIV.. fled into England with his
wife and children, and settled in Ireland, where his
descendants rose to fame and honour ; the present re-
presentative of the family being Sir E. R. Borough,
Bart.
Anthony Vinchon de Bacquencourt, a man eminent
for his learning, belonged to Rouen, of the parliament
of which his father was President. He was originally
a Roman Catholic, but being incensed at the pretended
miracles wrought at the tomb of the Abbe' Paris, he
embraced Protestantism, and fled from France. He
settled in Dublin under the name of Des Voeux (the
family surname), and became minister of the French
church there. He afterwards joined the Rev. John
Peter Droz, another French refugee, in starting the
first literary journal that ever appeared in Ireland.
The present representative of the famity is Sir C.
Des Voeux, Bart.
Among other baronets descended from French
refugees, may be mentioned Sir John Lambert, de-
scended from John Lambert of the Isle of Rhe'; Sir J.
D. Legard, descended from John Legard, of ancient
Norman lineage ; Sir A. J. de Hochepied Larpent, de-
scended from John de Larpent of Caen ; and Sir G. S.
Brooke Pechell, descended from the Pechells of Montau-
ban in Languedoc. One of the members of the last-
mentioned family having embraced Roman Catholicism,
his descendants still hold the family estate in France.
Many of the refugees and their descendants have
also sat in Parliament, and done good service there.
Probably the first Huguenot member of the House
of Commons was Phillip Papiilon, who sat for the
city of London in 1695. The Papillons had suffered
much for their religion in France, one of them having
lain in gaol at Avranches for three years. Various
members of the family have since represented Dover,
Romney, and Colchester.
Of past members of Parliament, the Pechells have
sat for Essex ; the Fonneraus for Aldborough ; the
CHAT. xvm. HUGUENOTS IX PARLIAMENT. 331
Durants for St. Ives and Evesham ; the Devagnes for
Barnstaple ; the Maugers for Poole ; the La Roches for
Bodmin ; and the Amyands for Tregony, Bodmin, and
Camelford. The last member of the Amyand family
was a baronet, who assumed the name of Cornewall on
marrying Catherine, the heiress of Velters Cornewall,
Esq., of Moccas Court, Herefordshire; and his only
daughter having married Sir Thomas Frankland Lewis,
became the mother of the late Sir George Comewall
Lewis, Bart.
Many descendants of the Huguenots who settled
in Ireland, also represented constituencies in the Irish
Parliament. Thus, the La Touches sat for Carlow ;
the Chaigneaus for Gowran ; and the Right Hon.
William Saurin, who filled the office of Irish Attorney-
General for fourteen years, may be said to have repre-
sented all Ireland. He was a man of great ability
and distinguished patriotism ; and but for his lack of
ambition, would have been made a judge and a peer,
both of which dignities he refused. Colonel Barre',
who belonged to the refugee family of that name settled
in Ireland, is best known by his parliamentary career
in England. He was celebrated as an orator and a
patriot, resisting to the utmost the passing of the
American Stamp Act, which severed the connection
between England and her American colonies. In 1776
he held the office of Vice- Treasurer of Ireland, and
afterwards that ef Paymaster to the Forces for
England.
Among more recent members of Parliament may be
mentioned the names of Dupre', Gaven, Hugessen, Jer-
voise, Labouchere, Layard, Lefevre, Lefroy, Paget (of
the Leicestershire family, formerly member for Notting-
ham), Pusey, Tomline, Rebow, and Vandeleur. Mr.
Chevalier Cobbold is descended by the female side
from Samuel le Chevalier, minister of the French
church in London in 1591 ; one of whose descendants
introduced the well-known Chevalier barley. Mr. Du
Cane is descended from the same family to which the
332 EMINENT HUGUENOT DIVINES. CHAP. xvni.
great admiral belonged. The first Du Cane or Da
Quesne who fled into England for refuge, settled at
Canterbury, and afterwards in London. The head
of this family was an Alderman of the City in 1666,
and in the next century his grandson Richard sat for
Colchester in Parliament; the present representative
of the Du Canes being the member for North Essex.
Of the descendants of refugees who were distin-
guished as divines, may be mentioned the Majendies,
one of whom — John James, son of the pastor of the
French church at Exeter — was Prebendary of Sarum,
and a well-known author; and another, son of the
Prebendary, became Bishop of Chester, and afterwards
of Bangor. The Saurins also rose to eminence in the
Church, — Louis Saurin, minister of the French church
in the Savoy, having been raised to the Deanery of St.
Patrick's, Ardagh ; whilst his son afterwards became
Vicar of Belfast, and his grandson Bishop of Dromore.
Roger Du Quesne, grandson of the Marquis Du Quesne,
was Vicar of East Tuddenhani in Norfolk, and a Pre-
bendary of Ely.
One of the most eminent scholars of Huguenot origin
was the Rev. Dr. Jortin, Archdeacon of London. He
was the son of Rene' Jortin, a refugee from Brittany,
who served as secretary to three British admirals suc-
cessively, and went down with Sir Cloudesley Shovel
in the ship in which he was wrecked off the Scilly
Isles in 1707. The son of Rene* was entered a pupil
at the Charter-House, and gave early indications of
ability, which were justified by the distinction which
he shortly after achieved at Cambridge. On the re-
commendation of Dr. Thirlby, young Jortin furnished
Pope with translations from the commentary of Eusta-
thius on Homer, as well as with notes for his transla-
tion of the Iliad ; but though Pope adapted them
almost verbatim, he made no acknowledgment of tho
assistance of his young helper. Shortly after, on a
fellowship becoming vacant at Cambridge by the death
•>f William Rosen, the descendant of another refugee,
CHAP. xvni. THE FLEURYS AND MATURINS. 333
Jortin was appointed to it. A few years later, he was
appointed to the vicarage of Swavesey, in Cambridge-
shire, from whence he removed to the living of Ken-
sington near London. There he distinguished himself
as the author of many learned works, of which the
best known is his able and elaborate Life of Erasmus.
He was eventually made Archdeacon of London, and
died in 1770 at Kensington, where he was buried.
Another celebrated divine was the Rev. George
Lewis Fleury, Archdeacon of Waterford — " the good
old archdeacon," as he was called — widely known for
his piety, his charity, and his goodness. He was
descended from Louis Fleury, pastor of Tours, who fled
into England with his wife and family at the Revoca-
tion. Several of the Fleurys are still clergymen in
Ireland.
The Maturins also have produced some illustrious
men. The pastor Gabriel Maturin, from whom they
are descended, lay a prisoner in the Bastile for twenty-
six years on account of his religion. But he tena-
ciously refused to be converted, and he was at length,
discharged, a cripple for life, — having lost the use of
his limbs during his confinement. He contrived,
however, to reach Ireland with some members of his
former flock, and there he unexpectedly found his wife
and two sons, of whom he had heard nothing during
the long period of his imprisonment. His son Peter
arrived at some distinction in the Church, having be-
come Dean of Killala ; and his grandson Gabriel James
became Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin. From him
descended several clergymen of eminence, one of them
an eloquent preacher, who is perhaps more widely
known as the author of two remarkable works —
Melmoth the Wanderer, and the tragedy of Bertram,.
There were numerous other descendants of the refu-
gees, clergymen and others, besides those already
named, who distinguished themselves by their literary
productions. Louis Dutens, who held the living of
Elsdon in Northumberland, produced a successful
334 DIVINES AND LAWYERS. CHAP. xvin.
tragedy, The Return of Ulysses, when only about
eighteen years of age. In his later years, he was the
author of numerous works of a more solid character, of
which one of the best known is his Researches on the
Origin of Discoveries attributed to the Moderns — a
work full of learning and labour. He also wrote an
Appeal to Good Sense, being a defence of Christianity
against Voltaire and the Encyclopaedists, besides
numerous other works.
The Rev. William Romaine, Rector of St. Ann's,
Blaokfriars, was the son of a French refugee who had
settled at Hartlepool as a merchant and corn-dealer.
Mr. Romaine was one of the most popular of London
clergymen, and his Life, Walk, and Triumph of Faith
is to this day a well-known and popular book among
religious readers. Romaine has been compared to " a
diamond — rough often, but very pointed ; and the more
he was broken by years, the more he appeared to
shine." Much of his life was passed in polemical
controversy, and in maintaining the Calvinistic views
which he so strongly held. He was a most diligent
improver of time ; and besides being exemplary and
indefatigable in performing the duties of his office, he
left behind him a large number of able works, which
were collected and published in 1796 in eight octavo
volumes.
We have already spoken of the distinction achieved
by Saurin and Romilly at the Irish and English bar.
But they did not stand alone. Of the numerous law-
yers descended from the refugees, several have achieved
no less eminence as judges than as pleaders. Of these,
Baron Mazeres, appointed Curzitor Baron of the Ex-
chequer in 1773, was one of the most illustrious. He was
not less distinguished as a man of science and an anti-
quarian, than as a lawyer. Justice Le Blanc, Sir John
Bayley, and Sir John Bosanquet, were also of French
extraction, the latter being descended from Pierre
Bosanquet, of Lunel in Languedoc. Chief Justice
Lefroy and Justice Perrin, of the Irish bench, were in
CHAP xvni. HUGUENOT LITERATI. 335
like manner descended from Huguenot families long
settled in Ireland.
A long list might be given, in addition to those
already mentioned, of persons illustrious in literature,
science, and the arts, who sprang from the same stock ;
but we must be content with mentioning only a few.
Peter Anthony Motteaux was not less distinguished for
his enterprise as an East India merchant, than for his
ability as a writer; and Sir John Charden, the traveller
and author, afterwards jeweller to the court, was es-
teemed in his time as a man of great parts and of
noble character. Garrick, the great English actor, was
of Huguenot origin, his real name being Garrigue.
The French D'Aubigne's have given us several eminent
men, bearing the name of Daubeny, celebrated in
natural history. Among other men of science, we note
the names of Rigaud, Sivilian professor of astronomy
at Oxford, and Roget, the physiologist, author of one
of the Bridgewater treatises. The Martineaus, so well
known in English literature, are descended from
Gaston Martineau, a surgeon of Dieppe, who settled at
Norwich in 1685 ; and the Barbaulds are sprung from
a minister of the French church of La Patente in
London. Some of our best novelists have also been of
French extraction. Captain Marryatfc and Captain
Chamier, whose nautical tales have charmed so many
readers, were both descended from Huguenots, as was
also Tom D'Urfey, the English song- writer. It has also
been supposed that the family of De Foe (or Vaux)
was of Huguenot origin.
Several men of considerable distinction in science
and invention emanated from the Huguenot settlers in
Spitalfields, which long continued to be the great
French quarter of London. The French handloom
weavers were in many respects a superior class of
workmen, though their earnings were comparatively
small in amount. Their employment was sedentary,
and entirely of a domestic character, — the workshop
being almost invariably situated over the dwelling,
336 HUGUENOT WORKMEN IN SPITALFIELDS. CHAP.XVIII.
and approached through it. All the members of
the family took part in the work, which was of such
a nature as not to prevent conversation; and when
several looms were worked on the same floor, this was
generally of an intellectual character. One of the
young people was usually appointed to read to those
at work — it might be a book on history, or frequently a
controversial work, — the refugee divines being among
the most prolific authors of their time. Nor were the
sufferings of the Huguenots at the galleys and in the
prisons throughout France forgotten in the dwellings of
the exiles, who often spoke of them to their children,
and earnestly enjoined them to keep steadfast in the
faith for which their fathers had suffered so much.
The circumstances in which the children of the
Huguenot workmen were thus brought up — their
domestic training, their religious discipline, and their
school culture — rendered them for the most part
intelligent and docile, while their industry was pro-
verbial. The exiles indulged in simple pleasures, and
were especially noted for their love of flowers. They
vied with one another in the production of the finest
plants ; and wherever they settled, they usually set
up a floricultural society to exhibit their products.
One of the first societies of the kind in England,
was that established by the exiles in Spitalfields ;
and when a body of them went over to Dublin to
carry on the manufacture of poplins, they proceeded
to set on foot the celebrated Flower Club which still
exists in that city. Others of them, who settled in
Manchester and Macclesfield, carried thither the same
love of flowers and botany, which still continues to
characterise their descendants.
Among the handloom weavers of Spitalfields were
also to be found occasional inquirers in physical science,
as well as several distinguished mathematicians. They
were encouraged in these studies by the societies which
were established for their cultivation, — a philosophical
hall having been founded with that object in Crispin
CHAP, xviil. THE DOLLONDS. 337
Street, Spitalfields.1 Though Simpson and Edwards,
both professors of mathematics at Woolwich, were
not of French extraction, they were both silk-weavers
in Spitalfields, and taught mathematics there. The
Dollonds, however, were of pure French origin. The
parents of John Dollond were Protestant refugees from
Normandy, — from whence they came shortly after the
Revocation. His father was a silk- weaver, to which
trade John was also brought up. From an early
age he displayed a genius for construction, and em-
braced every opportunity of reading and studying
books on geometry, mathematics, and general science.
He was, however, unable to devote more than his
spare moments to such objects ; and when he reached
manhood and married, his increasing family com-
pelled him to work at his loom more assiduously
than ever. Nevertheless, he went on accumulating
information, not only on mathematics, but on anatomy,
natural history, astronomy, and optics, reading also
extensively in divinity and ecclesiastical history. In
order to read the New Testament in the original, he
even learnt Greek ; and to extend his knowledge of
foreign literature, he also learnt Latin, French, German,
and Italian.
John Dollond apprenticed his eldest son Peter to
an optician ; and on the expiry of the young man's
apprenticeship, at the age of twenty, he opened a shop
in Vine Street, Spitalfields. The business proved so
prosperous that, shortly after, the elder Dollond was
induced to leave his loom at the age of forty-six, and
enter into partnership with his son as an optician.
He was now enabled to devote himself wholly to his
favourite studies, and to pursue as a business the art
which before had occupied him chiefly as an amuse-
ment.
One of the first subjects to which Dollond devoted
himself was the improvement of the refracting tele-
' The biiildintr, which still exists, is now used as an earthenware-store.
22
338 HUGUENOT INVENTIONS. CHAP. xvin.
scope. He entered on a series of experiments which
extended over several years, at first without results ;
but at length, after " a resolute perseverance " (to use
his own words), he made the decisive experiment which
showed the error of Newton's conclusion as to the
supposed law of refraction. The papers embodying
Dollond's long succession of experiments were printed
iu the Transactions of the Philosophical Society, and
for the last of them he was awarded the Royal Society's
Copley medal. The result of the discovery was an
immediate great improvement in the powers and
accuracy of the telescope and microscope, of which the
Dollond firm reaped the result in a large increase of
business, which still continues in the family.
Many other descendants of the Huguenots distin-
guished themselves by their inventions in connection
wiith chronometry, paper-making (Fourdrinier for
example), turning and tool-making, and spinning and
carding machinery. Of the latter class, it may suffice
to mention the name of Louis Paul, the original in-
ventor of spinning by rollers, subsequently revised and
successfully applied by Sir Richard Arkwright, — an
invention which has exercised an extraordinary in-
fluence on the manufacturing system of England and
the world at large.
This invention, together with that of the steam-
engine and the power-loom, gave almost the death-
blow to hand -loom weaving. From that time, the
manufactures of Spitalfields, Dublin, and the other
places where the descendants of the refugee workmen
had principally settled, fell into comparative decay.
Many of the artizans, following the current of trade,
left their looms in London, and migrated to Coventry,
Macclesfield, Manchester, and other northern manufac-
turing towns, then rising in importance. The stronger
and more self-reliant pushed out into the world ; the
more quiescent and feeble remained behind. The
hand-loom trade could not be revived, and no amount
of patient toil and industry could avert the distress
CHAP, xviii. THE HUGUENOT DESCENDANTS. 339
that fell upon the poor silk-weavers, which, even to
this day, from time to time sends up its wail in the
eastern parts of London.
Owing to these circumstances, as well as to the
gradual intermingling of the foreign with the native
population, the Erench element year by year became
less marked in Spitalfields ; and in the course of a few
generations the religious fervour which had distin-
guished the original Huguenot refugees, entirely died
out in their descendants. They might continue to
frequent the French churches, but it was in con-
stantly decreasing numbers. The foreign congregations
which had been so flourishing about the beginning of
the eighteenth century, towards the end of it became
the mere vestiges of what they had been, and at length
many of them were closed altogether, or turned over to
other denominations.
Sir Samuel Romilly, in his Autobiography, gives a
touching account of the domestic life of his father's
family, — their simple pleasures, their reading, society,
and conversation. Nearly all the visitors and friends
of the family were of French descent. They associated
together, worshipped together, and intermarried with
each other. The children went to a school kept by a,
refugee. On Sunday mornings, French was exclu-
sively spoken in the family circle; and at least
once in the day the family pew in the French
Artillery Church was regularly filled. " My fathert"
says Sir Samuel, " had a pew in one of the French
chapels, which had been established when the Protes-
tant refugees first emigrated into England, and he
required us to attend alternately there and at the
parish church [this was about the year 1730]. It was
a kind of homage which he paid to the faith of his
ancestors, and it was a means of rendering the French
language familiar to us ; but nothing was ever worse
calculated to inspire the mind of a child with respect
for religion than such a kind of religious worship,
of the descendants of the refugees were born and
340 CHURCH IN THE DESERT. CHAP. xvin.
bred in England, and desired nothing less than to
preserve the memory of their origin ; and the chapels
were therefore ill-attended. A large uncouth room,
the avenues to which were crowded courts and dirty
alleys, and which, when you entered it, presented to
the view only irregular unpainted pews and dusty un-
plastered walls ; a congregation consisting principally
of some strange-looking old women, scattered here
and there, two or three in a pew ; and a clergyman
reading the service and preaching in a monotonous
tone of voice, and in a language not familiar to me,
was not likely either to impress my mind with much
religious awe, or to attract my attention to the doc-
trines which were delivered. In truth, I did not once
attempt to attend to them ; my mind was wandering
to other subjects, and disporting itself in much gayer
scenes than those before me, and little of religion was
mixed in my reveries." 1
Very few of the refugees returned to France. They
long continued to sigh after the land of their fathers,
hoping that the religious persecutions abroad would
abate, so that they might return to live and die there.
But the persecutions did not abate. They flared up
again from time to time with increased fury, even
after religion had become almost prostrate throughout
France. Protestantism, though proscribed, was not,
however, dead; and meetings of the Huguenots con-
tinued to be held in " the Desert," — by night, in caves,
in the woods, among the hills, by the sea-shore, where
a body of faithful pastors ministered to them at the
hourly peril of their lives. The "Church in the
Desert " was even regularly organised, had its stated
elders, deacons, and ministers, and appointed circuit
meetings. Very rarely were their secrets betrayed ;
yet they could not always escape the vigilance of the
Jesuits, who continued to track them with the aid of
the soldiery and police, and succeeded in sending fresh
1 IAfe of Sir Samuel Ramilly, i., 16,
CHAP, xviii. LONG CONTINUED PERSECUTIONS. 341
victims to the galleys so long as they retained power
in France.
Down even to the middle of last century the per-
secution of the Protestants continued unabated. Thus,
at Grenoble, in the years 1745 and 1746, more than
three hundred persons were condemned to death, the
galleys, or perpetual imprisonment, because of their
religion. Twenty-nine nobles were condemned to be
deprived of their nobility; fourteen persons were
banished ; four were condemned to be flogged by the
common hangman ; six women were sentenced to have
their heads shaved by the same functionary, and to be
imprisoned, some for different periods, others for life ;
two men were condemned to be placed in the pillory ;
thirty-four were sent to the galleys for from three to
five years, six for ten years, and a hundred and sixteen,
amongst whom were forty-six gentlemen and two
chevaliers of the order of Saint Louis, were sent to the
galleys for life ; and four were sentenced to death.1
The only crime of which these persons had been guilty
was, that they had been detected attending Protestant
worship contrary to law.
The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1750, which gave
a brief repose to Europe, brought no peace to the
Huguenots. There was even an increase in their perse-
cutions for a time ; for a large body of soldiery had
been thereby set at liberty, who were employed to
hunt down the Protestants at their meetings in "the
Desert." Between the years 1750 and 1762, fifty-eight
persons were condemned to the galleys, many of them
for life. In the latter year more than six hundred
fugitives fled across the frontier into Switzerland, and
passed down the Rhine, through Holland and Eng-
land, into Ireland, where they settled. It is a some-
what remarkable circumstance, that, according to M.
Coquerel, one of the last women imprisoned for her
religion was condemned by an Irish Roman Catholic,
1 ASTOINE COUBT — Memoires Hlstoriques, pp. 94 ct seq
342 THE PERSECUTIONS SUSPENDED. CHAP, xviii.
then in the service of France : — " Marguerite Robert,
wife of Joseph Vincent, of Valeirarques, in the diocese
of Uzes, was arrested in her house, because of having
been married by a Protestant pastor ; and condemned
in 1759, by Honseigneur de ThomoTid . . . ce Lord
Irlandois" x
The punishment of the galleys was also drawing
to an end. The mutterings of the coming revolution
were already beginning to be heard. The long uncon-
trolled rule of the Jesuits had paved the way for
Voltaire and Rousseau, whose influence was about to
penetrate French society. In 1764, the Jesuits were
suppressed by Parliament, and the persecutions in a
great measure ceased. In 1769, Alexander Ghambon,
of Praules in the Viverais, the last galley-slave for the
faith, was discharged from the convict-prison at Toulon,
through the intervention of the Prince of Beauvau.
Chambon was then eighty years old, and had passed
twenty-seven years at the galleys, to which he had been
condemned for attending a religious meeting.
The last apprehension of a Protestant minister was
that of M. Broca, of La Brie, as late as the year 1773 ;
but the spirit of persecution had so much abated that
he was only warned and required to change his
residence. It began to be felt that, whilst materialism
and atheism were being openly taught even by priests
and dignitaries of the French Church — by the Abbe' de
Prades and others — the persecution of the Protestants
could no longer be consistently enforced; and they
accordingly thenceforwards enjoyed a degree of liberty
in the exercise of their worship, such as they had not
experienced since the death of Mazarin.
But this liberty came too late to be of any use to
the exiled Huguenots and their descendants settled in
England, who had long since given up all hope of re-
turning to the land of their fathers. The revolutionary
period shortly followed, after which came the wars of
1 CHABLES COQUEBEL — Uistoire des Eglisesdu Desert, ii., p. -1-8.
CHAP, xviir. TUB HUGUENOTS EFFACED. 343
the republic, and the revival of the old feud between
France and England. Many of the descendants of the
exiles, no longer desiring to remember their origin,
adopted English names, and ceased to be French.
Since that time the fusion of the exiles with the
English people has become complete, even in Spital-
fields. There are whole quarters of streets there, in
which the glazed garrets indicate the dwellings of the
French silk weavers. There are still some of their old
mulberry-trees to be seen in the gardens near Spital
Square. Many pure French names may still be ob-
served over the shop-doors in that quarter of London ;
and several descendants of the French manufacturers
still continue to carry on the business of silk- weaving.
Even the pot-au-feu is still known in Spitalfields,
though the poor people who use it know not of its
origin. And although there are many descendants
of the French operatives still resident in the east of
London, probably by far the largest proportion of them
have long since migrated to the more prosperous manu-
facturing districts of the north.
Throughout the country there was the same efface-
ment of the traces of foreign origin among the descend-
ants of the exiles. Everywhere they gradually ceased
to be French.1 The foreign manners, customs, and lan-
guage, probably held out the longest at Portarlington,
in Ireland, where the old French of Louis Quartorze
long continued to be spoken in society. The old French
service was read in the Huguenot church down to the
year!817,when it was finally supplanted by the English.
Thus, the refugees of all classes at length ceased to
exist as a distinctive body among the people who had
given them refuge. They were eventually absorbed into,
and became an integral part of the British nation.
1 The French mercantile of Bosanquet, Puget, etc. The
houses in England and Ireland, house of Puget and Co. in St.
who did business in London, Paul's Churchyard, recently
long continued to have their wound up, kept all their books
special London bankers, amongst in French down to the beginning
whom may be mentioned those of the present century.
CHAPTER XIX.
CONCLUSION. — THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
WHILE such were the results of the settlement of the
Protestant refugees in England, let us briefly glance at
the effect of their banishment upon the countries which
drove them forth.
The persecutions in Flanders and France succeeded,
after a sort. Philip II. crushed Protestantism in
Flanders, as had been done in Spain, to the temporary
ruin of the one country and the debasement of the
other. Flanders eventually became lost to the Spanish
crown, though it has since entered upon a new and
prosperous career under the constitutional government
of Belgium ; but Spain sank until she reached the very
lowest rank among the nations of Europe. The In-
quisition flourished, but the life of the nation decayed.
Spain lost her commerce, her colonies, her credit, her
intellect, her character. She became a country of
emeutes, revolutions, pronunciamentos, repudiations,
and intrigues. We have only to look at Spain now.
If it be true that in the long run the .collective
character of a natien is fairly represented by its
government and its rulers, the character of Spain
must have fallen very low indeed. l
1 Will Spain establish consti- he observed in a recent speech,
tutional government, and thus " that our people are not instruc-
vindicate her recent revolution ? ted ; and it is true. Yet, for
It is doubtful. Why? Let fifteen centuries the Catholic
Castelar, her greatest orator, Church has had the instructing
supply the answer. " It is said," of them. There is not a single
CHAP. xix. EFFECTS OF DESPOTISM IN FRANCE. 345
And how fared it with France after the banishment
of her Huguenots ? So far as regarded the suppression
of Protestantism, Louis XIV. may also be said to have
succeeded. For more than a century, that form of
religion visibly ceased to exist in France. The Protes-
tants had neither rights nor privileges, nor any vestige
of liberty. They were placed entirely beyond the
pale of the law. Such of them as would not be dra-
gooned into conformity to the Roman Catholic religion,
were cast into prison or sent to the galleys. If the
Protestants were not stamped wholly out of existence,
they were at least stamped out of sight ; and if they
continued to worship, it was in secret only — in caves,
among the hills, or in "the Desert." Indeed, no
measure of suppression could have been more complete.
But see with what results.
One thing especially strikes the intelligent reader of
French history subsequent to the Act of Revocation, —
and that is,, the almost total disappearance of great
Frenchmen. After that date, we become conscious of
a dull, dead level of subserviency and conformity to
the despotic will of the King. Louis trampled under
foot individuality, strength, and genius; there remained
only mediocrity, feebleness, and flunkeyism. This
feature of the time has been noted by writers so various
as De Felice, Merivale, Michelet, and Buckle — the last
of whom goes so far as to say that Louis XIV. " sur-
vived the entire intellect of the French nation."
progressive principle but has given rise to that apathy
been cursed by the Catholic which, in spite of our character,
Church. Not a constitution has is felt respecting us through-
been born, not a single progress out Europe. Oh, there is no-
made, not a solitary reform thing more abominable than that
effected, which has not been Spanish empire which extends
under the terrible anathema itself like a winding-sheet all
of the Church. We are a great over the planet ! " Though the
charnel - house, which extends government of Spain may for
from the Pyrenees to the sea of a time be changed, while the
Cadiz, and we have been sacri- power of the priests remains as
need on the altar of Catholicism. it is, there is comparatively little
Our religious intolerance has hope for Spain.
546 DECAY OF GREAT MEN IN FRANCE. CHAP. xix.
The Protestant universities of Saumur, Montauban,
Nismes, and Sedan were suppressed, and their professors
departed into other lands. All Protestant schools
were closed, and the whole educational organization
of the nation was placed in the hands of the Jesuits.
War was declared against Books forbidden by the
Church of Rome. Domiciliary visits were paid by the
district commanders to eveiy person suspected of pos-
sessing them ; and all devotional books of sermons and
hymns, as well as Bibles and Testaments, that could
be found, were ruthlessly burnt.
There was an end for a time of political and religious
liberty in France. Freedom of thought and freedom
of worship were alike crushed ; and the new epoch be-
gan,— of mental stagnation, political depravity, religious
hypocrisy, and moral decay. With the great men of
the first half of Louis XIV.'s reign, the intellectual
greatness of France disappeared for nearly a century.
The Act of Revocation of 1685 cut the history of his
reign in two : everything before, nothing after. There
was no great statesman after Colbert. At his death in
1683, the policy which he had so laboriously initiated
was summarily overthrown. The military and naval
genius of France seemed alike paralysed. The great
victories of Conde and Turenne on land, and of
Duquesne at sea, preceded the Revocation. After that,
Louis' army was employed for years in hunting and
dragonnading the Huguenots, which completely demo-
ralised them ; so that his next campaign, that of 1688,
began in disaster and ended in disgrace.
The same barrenness fell upon literature. Moliere,
the greatest of French comedians, died of melancholy
in 1674. Racine, the greatest of French poets and
dramatists, died in 1697; but his genius may be said
to have culminated with the production of Phcedre in
1676. Corneille died in 1684, but his last, though not
his greatest work, Surena, was produced in 1676. La
Fontaine published his last fables in 1679.
With Pascal, a man as remarkable for his piety as
CHAP. xix. A DREARY WASTE IX FRENCH HISTORY. 347
for his genius, expired, in 1662, the last free utterance
of the Roman Catholic Church in France. He died
protesting to the last against the immorality and des-
potism of the principles of the Jesuits. It is true, after
the Revocation, there remained, of the great French
clergy, Bo.ssuet, Bourdaloue, and Fene'lon. They were,
however, the products of the first half of Louis' reign,
and they were the last of their race. For we shall find
that the effect of the King's policy was to strike with
paralysis the very Church which he sought exclusively
to establish and maintain.
After this period, we seem to triad a dreary waste
in French history. True loyalty became extinguished,
and even patriotism seems to have expired. Litera-
ture, science, and the arts almost died out, and there
remained a silence almost as of the grave, broken only
by the noise of the revelries at court, amidst which
there rose up from time to time the ominous wailings of
the gaunt and famishing multitude.
The policy of Louis XIV. had succeeded, and France
was at length " con verted "! Protestantism had been
crushed, and the Jesuits were triumphant. Their
power over the bodies and souls of the people was as
absolute as law could make it. The whole education
of the countiy was placed in their hands ; and what
the character of the next generation was to be, de-
pended in a great measure upon them. Not. only the
churches and the schools, but even the national prisons,
were controlled by them. They were the confessors of
the bastiles, of which there were twenty in France,
where persons could be incarcerated for life on the
authority merely of lettres de cachet, which were given
away or sold. Besides the bastiles and the galleys,1
1 In the reign of Louis XV., veritable slaves, and were occa-
" The Well-Beloved," the galleys sionally sold ; the price of a gal-
still contained many Protestants, ley-slave in The Well-Beloved's
besides persons who had been reign being about £120. Vol-
rictected aiding Protestants to taire was presented with a gal-
escape. They were regarded as ley-slave by M. de Choiseul.
348 OUTCOME OF THE REVOCATION. CHAP. xix.
over which the Jesuits presided, there were also the
state prisons, of which Paris alone contained about
thirty, besides convents, — where persons might be
immured without any sentence. " Surely never," says
Michelet, "had man's dearest treasure, liberty, been
more lavishly squandered."
The Church in France had grown immensely rich
by the property of the Protestants which was trans-
ferred to it, as well as by royal grants and private
benefactions. So far as regards money, it had in its
hands the means and the power of doing all that it
could, to mould the rnind and conscience of the French
nation. The clergy held in their hands one-fifth of the
whole landed property of the country, estimated to be
worth about £160,000,000 ; and attached to these lands
were the serfs whom they continued to hold until the
Revolution.
And now, let us see what was the outcome of the
action of this Church, so rich and so powerful, — after
enjoying a century of undisputed authority in France.
All other faiths had been compelled to, make way for
it. Protestantism had been put down with a strong
hand. Free thought of all kinds had shrunk for a
time out of sight.
What was the result of this exclusive action on
the mind and conscience of the French people ? The
result was utter emptiness : to use the words of
Carlyle, " emptiness of pocket, of stomach, of head, and
of heart." The church which had claimed and ob-
tained the sole control of the religious education of
France, saw itself assailed by its own offspring, — so
desperate, ignorant, and ferocious, that in some places,
they even seized the priests and indecently scourged
them in front of their own altars.
The nation that would not have the Bayles, and
Claudes, and Saurins of a century before, now cast
themselves at the feet of the Voltaires, Kousseaus, and
Diderots. Though France would not have the God of
the Huguenot's Bible, she now accepted the Evangel of
CHAP. xix. DEGRADA TION OF THE R OMAN CLER G Y. 349
Jean Jacques ! A poor bedizened creature, clad in
tawdry, was led through the streets of Paris in the
character of the Goddess of Reason !
Even the Roman Catholic clergy themselves had, to
a large extent, ceased to believe in the truth of their
doctrines. They had become utterly corrupted and
demoralised. Their monasteries were the abodes of
idleness and self-indulgence. Their pulpits were
mute : their books were empty. The doctors of the
Sorbonne still mumbled their accustomed jargon,
but it was now powerless. Instead of the great
churchmen of the past — Bossuet, Bourdaloue, and
Fe'nelon — there were such blind leaders of the blind
as the Cardinal de Rohan, — the profligate confederate of
Madame la Motte in the affair of the diamond neck-
lace ; the Abb^ Sieyes, — the constitution-monger ; the
Abbd Raynal, — the open assailant of Christianity in
every form ; and Father Lomenie, — the avowed atheist.1
The corrupt, self-condemned institution, became a
target for the wit of Voltaire and the encyclopedic
philosophy of Diderot. It was assailed by the clubs
of Marat, Danton, and Robespierre. Then the unfed,
untaught, victims of centuries of oppression and mis-
guidance rose up as one man, and cried, "Away with
it " — Ecrasez Vlnfame. The churches were attacked
1 At the Revolution, many of worthy of the Republic, because
the priests openly abjured Chris- you have sacrificed at the altar of
tianity, and were applauded ac- your country these Gothic bau-
cordingly. The Bishop of Peri- bles." Gobel and the priests
gaux presented the woman whom donned the bonnet rovge in
he had married to the Convention, token of fraternisation with the
saying, " I have taken her from '• Friends of Men." Numbers of
amongst the sans-culottes." priests came daily and gave up
His speech was hailed with im- to the Convention their letters of
mense applause. Gobel, Arch- priesthood. Puaux says, " Those
bishop of Paris, presented him- of their predecessors who distin-
self at the bar of the Convention, guished themselves in the cru-
with his vicars and many of his sades against the Huguenots, had
curates, and desired to lay at the slipped their foot in blood ; but
feet of the Assembly their sacer- these fell lower — their foot
dotal garments. " Citizens," said slipped in mud."
the President in reply, '' you are
360 THE REIGN OF TERROR. CHAP. xix.
and gutted, as those of the Huguenots had been a cen-
tury before. The church-bells were cast into cannon ;
the church-plate coined into money; and at length
Christianity itself was abolished by the Convention,
which declared the Supreme People to be the only
Supreme God !
The Roman Catholic clergy, who had so long perse-
cuted the Huguenots, were now persecuted in turn by
their own flocks. Many of them were guillotined;
others, chained together as the Huguenots had formerly
been, were sent prisoners to Rochelle and the Isle of
Aix. As a body of them passed through Limoges, on
their way to the galleys, they encountered a procession
of asses clothed in priests' dresses, a mitred sow march-
ing at their head. Some 400 priests lay riding in Aix
roads, where the Huguenot galley-slaves had been be-
fore them — " ragged, sordid, hungry, wasted to shadows,
eating their unclean rations on deck, circularly, in par-
ties of a dozen, with finger and thumb ; beating their
scandalous clothes between two stones ; choked in hor-
rible miasmata, under close hatches, seventy of them
in a berth through the night, so that the aged priest is
found lying dead in the morning in an attitude of
prayer." l
Such was the outcome of the Act of Revocation of
Louis the Great — Sans-culottism and the Reign of
Terror ! There was no longer the massacre and ban-
ishment of Huguenots, but there was the guillotining
and banishment of the successors of the priests whom
Louis had set up. There was one other point in
which 1793 resembled 1685. The fugitive priests fled
in precisely the same direction in which the Huguenot
pastors had done ; and again the persecuted for reli-
gion's sake made for the old free land of England, to
join the descendants of the Huguenots, driven out ot
France for altogether different reasons a century
before.
1 CABLTLB — French Jtevolutiett, ii. 338.
CHAP. xix. THE GEXEPAL DEGRADATION. 351
But the Roman Catholic priests did not fly alone.
They were accompanied by the nobles, the descendants
of those who had superintended the dragonnades.
Never, since the flight of Huguenots which followed
the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, had there been
such an emigration of Frenchmen from France. But
there was this difference between the emigrations of
1685 and 1793 — that whereas in the former period
the people who emigrated consisted of the industrious
classes, in the latter period they consisted for the most
part of the idle classes. The men who now fled were
the nobles and priests, who had so misguided and mis-
taught the people entrusted to their charge, that in
nearly all parts of France they rose up in rebellion
against them.
The great body of the people had become reduced
to absolute destitution. They had no possession
whatever but their misery. They were literally dying
of hunger. The Bishop of Chartres told Louis XV.
that in his diocese the men browsed like sheep. For
want of food, they filled their stomachs with grass.
The dragoons, who had before been employed to hunt
down the Huguenots because of their attending re-
ligious meetings, were now employed on a different
duty. They were stationed in the market-places
where meal was exposed for sale, to keep back the
famishing people.
In Paris alone, there were 200,000 beggars prowling
about, with sallow faces, lank hair, and hung in rags.
In 1789, crowds of them were seen hovering about
the Palais Royal — spectral-looking men and starving
women, delirious from fasting. Some were said not
to have eaten for three whole days. The women
wandered about like hungry lionesses; for they had
children. One Foulon, a member of the King's council,
on being told of the famine endured by the people,
said — " Wait till I am minister : I will make them
eat hay ; my horses eat it." The words were bitterly
avenged. The hungry mob seized Foulon, hanged him
252 DRAGONNADES AND NOYADJW. CHAP. xix.
a la lanterne, and carried his head about the streets,
his mouth filled with hay.
From the provinces, news came that the starving
Helots were everywhere rising, burning down the
chateaus of. the nobles, tearing up their title-deeds,
and destroying their crops. On these occasions, the
church-bells were rung by way of tocsin, and the
population of the parish turned out to the work of
destruction. Seventy-two chateaus were wrecked and
burnt in the Maconnais and Beaujolais alone ; and the
conflagration spread throughout Dauphiny, Alsace,
and the Lyonnais, — -the very quarters from which the
Huguenots had been so ferociously driven out a cen-
tury before.
There was scarcely a district in which the Hugue-
nots had pursued their branches of industry, — now
wholly suppressed, — in which the starving and infu-
riated peasantry were not working wild havoc, and
taking revenge upon their lords. They had learned
but too well the lessons of the sword, the dungeon,
and the scaffold, which their rulers had taught them ;
and the Reign of Terror which ensued, was but the
natural outcome of the massacre of Saint Bartholomew,
the wars of the dragonnades, and the ineffable cruelties
which followed the Act of Revocation. But the vic-
tims had now changed places. Now it was the nobles
who were persecuted, burnt out, had their estates con-
fiscated, and were compelled to fly for their lives.
The dragonnades of the Huguenots were repeated in
the noyades of the Royalists ; and again Nancy, Lyons,
Rouen, Bordeaux, Montauban, and numerous other places
witnessed a repetition of the cruelties of the preceding
century. At Nantes, where the famous Edict of Tole-
ration (afterwards revoked) was proclaimed, the guillo-
tine was worked until the headsman sank exhausted ;
and to hasten matters, a general fusillade in the plain
of St. Mauve followed, of men, women, and children.
At Paris, the hideous Marat called for " eight hundred
gibbets," in convenient rows, to hang the enemies of
CHAP. xix. FLIGHT OF NOBLES AND PRIESTS. 353
the people. He would be satisfied with nothing short
of " two hundred thousand aristocratic heads."
It is unnecessary to pursue the dreadful story
further. Suffice it to say that the nobles, like the
priests, fled out of France to escape the fury of the
people, and they too made for England, where they
received the same asylum which had been given to
their clergy. To prevent the flight of the noblesse, the
same measures were adopted by the Convention which
Louis XIV. had adopted to prevent the escape of
the Huguenots. The frontiers were strictly guarded,
and all the roads patrolled which led out of France.
Severe laws were passed against emigration ; and the
estates of fugitive aristocrats were declared to be con-
fiscated to the state. Nevertheless, many succeeded in
making their escape into Switzerland, Germany, and
England.
It fared still worse with Louis XVI. and his beautiful
queen, Marie Antoinette. They were the most illus-
trious victims of the barbarous policy of Louis XIV.
That monarch had sowed the wind, and they were
now reaping the whirlwind. A mob of starving men
and women, the genuine offspring of the Great King,
burst in upon Louis and his consort at Versailles,
shouting " Bread ! bread ! " They were very different
from the plumed and garlanded courtiers accustomed
to worship in these gilded saloons. They insisted on
the king and queen accompanying them to Paris,
virtually as their prisoners. The royal family tried to
escape, as the Huguenots had done before them, across
the frontier into Germany. But in vain I The king's
own highway was closed against him ; and the fugi-
tives were led back to Paris and the guillotine.
The last act of the unfortunate Louis was his attempt
to address a few words to his subjects ; when the drums
were ordered to be beaten, and his voice was drowned
by the noise. It was remembered that the last occa-
sion on which a like scene had occurred in France, was
that of the execution of the young Huguenot pastor
23
354 FINAL RESULTS OF REVOCATION. CHAP. xix.
Fulcran Rey, at Beaucaire. When he opened his mouth
publicly to confess his faith, the drummers posted
round the scaffold were ordered to beat, and his
dying speech remained unheard. The slaughter of
the martyred preacher was thus terribly avenged.
We think we are justified in saying, that but for
the persecution and expulsion of the Huguenots at
the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, the
Revolution of 1789 most probably never would have
occurred. The Protestants supplied that enterprising
and industrious middle class which gives stability to
every state. They provided remunerative employment
for the population, while at the same time they en-
riched the kingdom by their enterprise and industry.
Moreover, they furnished that virtuous and religious
element in society without which a nation is but as
so much chaff that is driven before the wind. When
they were suppressed or banished, there was an end of
their industrial undertakings. The further growth of
a prosperous middle class was prevented ; and the mis-
government of the ruling class being unchecked, the
great body of the working order were left to idleness,
nakedness, and famine. Faith in God and in good
died out ; religion, as represented by the degenerate
priesthood, fell into contempt ; and the reign of
materialism and atheism began. Frightful distress
at length culminated in revolution and anarchy ; and
there being no element of stability in the state, — no
class possessing moral weight to stand between the in-
furiated people at the one end of the social scale, and
the king and nobles at the other, — the imposture
erected by the Great Louis was assailed on all sides,
and king, church, and nobility were at once swept
away.
As regards the emigration of the Huguenots in 1685,
and of the nobles and clergy in 1789, it must be ac-
knowledged that the former was by much the most
calamitous to France. "Was the one emigration
greater than the other ? " says Michelet. " I do not
CHAP. xix. RESULTS AS REGARDS ENGLAND. 355
know. That of 1685 was probably from three to four
hundred thousand persons. However this may be,
there was this great difference between them : France,
at the emigration of '89, lost its idlers ; at the other,
its workers. The terror of '89 struck the individual,
and each feared for his life. The terror of the dragon-
nades struck at heart and conscience ; then men feared
for their all."
The one emigration consisted for the most part of
nobles and clergy, who left no traces of their settlement
in the countries which gave them asylum ; the other
emigration comprised all the constituent elements of
a people — skilled workmen in all branches, manufac-
turers, merchants, and professional men ; and wherever
they settled they founded numerous useful establish-
ments which were a source of prosperity and wealth.
Assuredly England has no reason to regret the
asylum which she has in all times so freely granted
to fugitives flying from religious persecution abroad.
Least of all has she reason to regret the settlement
within her borders of so large a number of industrious,
intelligent, and high-minded Frenchmen, who have
made this country their home since the Revocation of
the Edict of Nantes, and thereby not only stimulated,
but in a measure created, British industry ; while, at
the same time they have influenced, in a remarkable
degree, our political as well as our religious history
DISTINGUISHED HUGUENOT REFUGEES
AND THEIB
DESCENDANTS.
DISTINGUISHED HUGUENOT REFUGEES
THEIR DESCENDANTS.
ABBADIE, JAMES, D.D. : a
native of Nay, in Beam, where
he was born in 1654. An able
preacher and writer ; first set-
tled in Berlin, which he left to
accompany the Duke of Schom-
berg into England. He was
for some time minister of the
Church of the Savoy, London,
and afterwards became Dean
of Killaloe, in Ireland. He
died in London, 1727. For
notice see p. 252.
A'LASCO : see p. 116.
ALLIX, PETER : an able
preacher and controversialist.
Born at Alencon, 1641 ; died
in London, 1717. He was one
of the ministers of the great
church at Charenton, near
Paris. At the Revocation he
took refuge in England, where
he was appointed canon and
treasurer to the Cathedral of
Salisbury. For notice see p.
253.
AMAND, or AMYAND : a Hu-
guenot refugee of this name
settled in Lon'don in the begin-
ning of last century. His son
1764), who sat in Parliament
for Barnstaple. The second
baronet assumed the name of
Cornewall. His daughter mar-
ried Sir Gilbert Frankland
Lewis, Bart., and was the
mother of the late Sir Corne-
wall Lewis, Bart., M.P. Wil-
liam Henry Haggard of Brades-
ham, Norfolk, married Miss
Frances Amyand, who belonged
to a younger branch of the
family, in right of whom the
present Mr. Haggard now pos-
sesses Amyand House, Twick-
enham.
: the name of a French
refugee f airily settled in South-
ampton, to whom the celebrated
and unfortunate Major Andre'
belonged, — though the latter
was brought up at Lichfield.
ABNAUD : a Huguenot family
of noble descent. In Mon-
strelet's continuation of Frois-
sart's Chronicles, translated by
Thomas Jones, an ancestor of
the Arnauds is described in a
note (i. 348) as " Guillem-Ar-
naud, baron of Barbazan in
Claude was principal surgeon ! Bigorre, first Chamberlain to
to George H. ; and the two j Charles VII. , afterwards Gov-
sons of the latter were Claudius, j ernor of Champagne and the
Under Secretary of State, and j Lionnais," etc. The king gave
George (created a baronet in him the title of Chevalier sans
360
HUGUENOT REFUGEES.
ARX— AtTB.
repi-oche, and permitted him to
take the fleur-de-lys for his
arms. He was killed at Belle-
ville in 1432, and buried with
the highest honours." Shake-
speare, in his play of Henry V.,
alludes to him as a "devil,"
i.e. to the English army to
which he was opposed. A de-
scendant of his was the Marquis
de Pompone (Simon Arnaud),
Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs to Louis XIV. In the
sixteenth century a branch of
the family became Huguenot,
and emigrated to England.
The ancestor of the English
Arnauds was, when quite a
child, smuggled out of France
in a hamper, and brought across
the English Channel in an open
boat. Elias Arnaud, his son,
subsequently became a thriving
merchant at Portsmouth, and
was appointed deputy - lieu-
tenant for the county of Hants.
His son Elias Bruce Arnaud
was also a deputy - lieutenant,
and a very active magistrate.
In 1804, when England was
threatened with invasion by
the French, he raised a regi-
ment of infantry at Ports-
mouth, and commanded it as
colonel. His second son, John,
was a lieutenant in the llth
Regiment at Toulouse, where
(according to Sir Wm. Napier,
in his History of the Peninsular
War, vi. 169) two British regi-
ments, the llth and 91st, came
up and turned the tide of
battle, which, until then, had
gone in favour of the French.
He died a few years ago, a
major - general, K.H. His
eldest son Elias, for many
years collector of customs at
Liverpool, was the father of
Henry Bruce Arnaud, now a
member of the English bar.
The present representative of
the second or junior branch of
the Arnauds, is John Macaulay
Arnaud, related, through his
maternal grandfather John Ma-
caulay, formerly of Ardincaple
in Dumbartonshire, to the late
Lord Macaulay, and through
the ancient family of the Oli-
phants of Gask in Perthshire,
to several noblemen and per-
sons of distinction, including
the celebrated Lady Nairne.
The Arnauds are also related
to Sir George Bowyer, Sir
Maziere Brady, ex-Lord Chan-
cellor of Ireland, and the late
Sir Lucius Curtis, admiral of
the fleet.
ARNAULD, JOHN : James
Fontaine, in his Autobiography,
frequently makes mention of
his cousin, John Arnauld, set-
tled in London.
AUBERTIN : This family
originally belonged to Metz,
in Lorraine. The original emi-
grant fled from France at the
Revocation, leading his grand-
child, a little boy, by the hand.
They arrived at Neuchatel, in
Switzerland ; other members of
the family joined them ; and
they settled there for a time.
But the great-grandson of the
original emigrant, not finding a
small place like Neuchatel to
his taste, left it about a century
ago, and naturalized himself in
England. His son, the late
Rev. Peter Auberton, vicar of
Chepstead, Surrey, died in
1861, in his 86th year, leaving
a numerous family. The Rev.
Edmund Auberton, of Chalon-
AUK — BAS.
HUGUENOT REFUGEES.
361
sur-Marne, a famous Protestant
divine, author of the famous
work on the Eucharist, which so
much disturbed Rome at the
time of its publication, was a
collateral ancestor of the same
family.
AUFRERE, GEORGE, M.P. :
descended from a Huguenot
refugee ; sat for Stamford in
Parliament from 1761 to 1768.
AURIOL, PETER : a refugee
from Lower Languedoc, who
rose to eminence as a London
merchant. The Archbishop of
York, the Hon. and Most Rev.
R. N. Drummond, married his
daughter and heiress, Henri-
etta, and afterwards succeeded
to the peerage of Strathallan.
The refugee's daughter thus be-
came Countess of Strathallan.
The present head of the family
is the Earl of Kinnoul, who
continues to bear the name of
Auriol. The Rev. Edward
Auriol is rector of St. Dun-
stan's-in-the-West, London.
BACQTJENCOURT : See Des
Vceux.
BARBON : A French Hugue-
not family of this name lived
at Wandsworth. The name
was changed to Barbone, or
Barebone. In Mount Nod,
the French burying-ground at
Wandsworth, is a tombstone
bearing this inscription : "Sarai,
daughter of Praise Barbone,
was buried 13th April, 1635."
Praise-God Barebone, the lea-
ther-seller in Fetter Lane,
belonged to this family.
BARON, PETER : Professor
in the University of Cambridge
about 1575. He was originally
from Etampes, and fled to
England after the massacre of
Saint Bartholomew. He died
in London, leaving behind him
an only son, Samuel, who
practised medicine at Lyme-
Regis in Norfolk.
BARRE': a Protestant family
of Pont-Gibau, near Rochelle,
several members of which set-
tled in Ireland. Peter Barr£
married Miss Raboteau, also a
refugee. He was an alderman
of Dublin, and carried on a
large business as a linendraper.
His son Isaac, educated at
Trinity College, Dublin, en-
tered the army, in which he
rose to high rank. He was
adjutant-general of the British
forces under Wolfe at Quebec.
He afterwards entered Parlia-
ment, where he distinguished
himself by his eloquence and
his opposition to the American
Stamp Act. In 1776 Colonel
Barre was made Vice-Treasurer
of Ireland and Privy Coun-
cillor. He subsequently held
the offices of Treasurer of the
Navy and Paymaster of the
Forces, in both of which he
displayed eminent integrity
and ability. He died in 1802.
See also pp. 173, 331.
BASNAGE : Few families in
France have produced so many
persons of literary distinc-
tion and moral worth, as the
Basnages. Nicholas Basnage
was driven by the persecutions
which followed the massacre of
St. Bartholomew, to take refuge
in England, where he for some
time officiated as pastor of the
French Walloon Church at Nor-
wich. He afterwards returned
to France. His son Benjamin
succeeded his father as minister
of Charenton, and was head of
362
tiUGUENOT REFUGEES.
BAT — BAY.
the Protestant assembly held at
Bochelle, in 1622. He was sent
over to England on a mission,
to solicit aid from James I. for
the Protestants. He was the
author of several able works,
and during his lifetime was
regarded as one of the chief
luminaries of the Protestant
Church. Antoine, son of Ben-
jamin, was minister of Bayeux,
and was long imprisoned be-
cause of his faith, in the prison
of Havre de Grace. After the
Revocation, he escaped to
Zutphen, in Holland, where
he was minister of a French
congregation, and died in 1681.
Samuel Basnage, son of Antoine,
was a minister, like his father,
and, like him, escaped to Zut-
phen, succeeding him in his
charge. He was the author of
numerous works, greatly prized
in their time. Henri Basnage
was one of the most able and
eloquent advocates in the Par-
liament of Rouen. His learning
was great, and his integrity
unsullied. But his eldest son,
Jacques Basnage, was the most
eminent member of the family.
He was a man of immense
learning. At the early age of
23, he was appointed minister
of the great Protestant church
at Grand Queville, near Rouen,
capable o f accommodating
10,500 persons. When that
church was demolished, and
the persecution waxed very
hot, he took refuge at the
Hague. While there he was
often employed in delicate
state affairs, which he skilfully
conducted ; and Voltaire said of
him, that he was better fitted
to be a minister of state than
of a parish. He published
eleven learned historical works
in his lifetime, some of which
passed through many editions.
His younger brother, Henri,
was also an esteemed author.
Like Jacques, he took refuge
in Holland, and died there.
BATZ: the name of a Hugue-
not family, the head of which
was seigneur of Monan, near
i Nerac, in Guyenne. Three of
! the sons of Joseph de Batz,
1 seigneur of Guay, escaped from
France into Holland, and en-
| tered the service of the Prince
; of Orange, whom they accom-
panied in his expedition to
England. Two of them, cap-
tains of infantry, were killed
at the Boyne.
BAUDOTTIN : This family is
descended from Jacques Bau-
douin, whose tombstone, in
Mount Nod burying-ground at
Wandsworth, relates all that
we know of him : " James
Baudouin, Esq., born at Nismes,
in France ; but in the year
1685, fled from France to avoid
Tyranny and Persecution, and
enjoyed a Protestant Liberty
of Conscience, which he sought,
and happily found, and was
gratefully sensible of, in the
Communion of the Church of
England. He constantly an-
swered this pious Resolution in
i his life, and went to enjoy the
j blessed Fruits of it, by his
i death on the 2nd day of Feb.,
1 1738-9, aged 91."
BAYLEY, Sir JOHN, Bart. :
the late distinguished Judge of
i the Court of Queen's Bench,
;( 1808-30), afterwards a Baron
j of the Court of Exchequer and
• Privy Councillor, was fourth in
fiEA -BEL.
HUGUENOT REFUGEES.
363
descent from Philippe de Bail-
leul, a French Protestant re- '
fugee, who settled in the neigh-
bourhood of Thorney Abbey
about the year 1656. It is be-
lieved that the family originally
came from the neighbourhood
of Lille, where there are still
many of the same name ; and
that they joined the Walloon
colony, which in the first place i
settled at Sandtoft in York-
shire, but migrated from thence
to Thorney Abbey during the
wars of the Commonwealth.
The above Philippe de Bailleul,
or his son Daniel, purchased a
small estate at Willow Hall,
near Peterborough, which still
belongs to the family. These
two married daughters of Pro-
testant refugees ; but Daniel's
son, Isaac Bayley, married
Orme Bigland, a member of the
ancient family of Bigland of
Bigland ; and their second son,
John Bayley, married Sarah
Kennet, granddaughter and j
heir of White Kennet, Bishop j
of Peterborough, by whom he
became father of Sir John
Bayley, and grandfather of the
late Judge Bayley, of the
Westminster County Court.
The original name of De Bail-
leul has undergone many trans-
mutations,— passing through
Balieu, Balieul, Bayly, Bailly,
and ultimately arriving at Bay-
ley.
BEAUFORT, DANIEL CORNE-
LIS DE : a controversial writer.
He was pastor of the church of
New Patente in 1728 ; oi the
Artillery in 1728 ; and of the
Savoy, and probably Spring
Gardens, in 1741. He after-
wards went to Ireland, where
he held the living of Navan,
and was appointed Dean of
Tuam. Admiral Sir Francis
Beaufort, Hydrographer Royal,
belonged to the family, as also
does Lady Strangford and the
rector of Lymm. Cheshire.
BEAUVOIR, DE : the name of
one of the most ancient families
in Languedoc, several branches
of which were Protestant.
Francis, eldest son of Scipio
du Roure, took refuge in Eng-
land at the Revocation, and
obtained a company in a cavalry
regiment. His two sons also
followed the career of arms with
distinction . Alexander, the
eldest, was colonel of the 4th
Foot, Governor of Plymouth,
Lieutenant-General, Comman-
der-in-Chief in Scotland, etc.
He especially distinguished
himself at the battle of Dettin-
gen. He went into France for
the benefit of his health, and
died at Bareges, where he
had gone for the benefit of the
waters. The French Govern-
ment having refused his body
Christian burial, in consequence
of his being the son of a Protes-
tant refugee, the body was em-
balmed and sent to England
to be buried. The second son,
Scipio, was also the colonel of
an English Infantry regiment,
and was killed at the battle of
; Fontenoy. — Another family of
I the same name is sprung from
| Richard de Beauvoir, Esq. , of
the island of Guernsey, who
purchased the manor of Balmes,
in the parish of Hackney, and
' thus gave its name to De Beau
voir Town.
BELCASTEL DE MONTVAIL-
LANT, PIERRE : a refugee officer
364
HUGUENOT REFUGEES.
from Languedoc, who entered ; his Irish cousin. She died
the service of William of Orange, j without issue, and the widower
After the death of La Caille-jnext married a Mademoiselle
motte at the Boyne, he was \ Mestayer, also of French de-
made colonel of the regiment. ' scent. — Beranger was a very
Belcastel took a prominent part clever, observant man. He
in the Irish campaigns of 1690-
91. He was eventually raised
to the rank of major-general in
the Dutch army. He was killed
at the battle of Villa Viciosa,
Spain, in 1710.
BENEZET, ANTOINE : one of
the earliest and most zealous
advocates of negro emancipa-
tion. He was born in London
in 1713, of an honest refugee
couple from Saint-Quentin, and
was employed by an anti-
qxiarian society in Dublin,
under Burton, Conyngham,
and Valiancy, to travel through
Ireland in company with the
celebrated Italian architect,
Signer Bigari, and describe
and draw the various antiqui-
ties of Ireland. A consider-
able collection of his drawings
and MSS. recently came into
the possession of the late Sir
bred to the trade of a cooper, j W. R. Wilde, who contributed
He accompanied his parents to an illustrative memoir of Be-
America, and settled at Phila- : ranger to the Kilkenny Journal
delphia. There he became a | of Archaeology. He died in St.
Quaker, and devoted himself Stephen's Green, Dublin, in
with great zeal to the question
of emancipation of the blacks,
— for whose children he estab-
lished and supported schools
in Philadelphia. He died there
in 1784.
BENOIT, N. : a refugee silk-
weaver settled in Spitalfields.
He was the author of several
controversial works, more par-
ticularly relating to baptism ;
Benoit being of the Baptist
persuasion.
BERANGER : a branch of the
Huguenot family of this name
settled in Ireland and another
in Holland, but both dwindled
in numbers until, in 1750, they
became reduced to two — one
the only surviving son of the
Dutch refugee, and the other
the only surviving daughter of
the Irish refugee. The Dutch-
man, Gabriel Beranger, came
over to Dublin and married
1817, and was interred in the
French burying-ground there.
BERTHEATT, Rev. CHARLES :
refugee pastor in London : a
native of Montpellier. He was
expelled from Paris, where
he was one of the minis-
ters of the great Protestant
church of Charenton, at the
Revocation. He became minis-
ter of the Walloon church in
Threadneedle Street, which
office he filled for forty-four
years. Several volumes of his
sermons have been published.
BERNIERE, JEAN AXTOINE DE :
a refugee officer who served
under the Earl of Galway in
Spain. He lost a hand at the
battle of Almanza. His son
was captain in the 30th Foot ;
his grandson (Henry Abraham
Crommelin de Berniere), was a
major-general in the British
army ; and his great-grandson,
BIO- BOG.
HUGUENOT REFUGEES.
365
married to the sister of the late
Archbishop of Canterbury, rose
to the same rank.
BION, JEAN FRANgois : a
native of Dijon, Roman Catho-
lic curate of Ursy, afterwards
appointed chaplain to the gal-
ley Superbe at Toulon, which
contained a large number of
galley-slaves condemned for
their faith. Touched by their
sufferings, as well as by the
patience and courage with
which they bore them, Bion
embraced Protestantism, ex-
claiming. "Their blood preaches
to me ! " He left France for
Geneva in 1704, and afterwards
took refuge in London, where
he was appointed rector of a
school, and officiated as minis-
ter to the French church at
Chelsea. He subsequently
proceeded to Holland, where he
exercised the functions of chap-
lain to an English church. He
was the author of several works,
— the best known being his
Relation des Tourmens qne Von
fait souffrir aux Protestans
ijui sont sur les Galeres de
France, published at London
in 1708.
BLANC, ANTHONY : pastor of
the French church of La Nou-
velle Patente in 1G92. Theo-
dore and Jean Blanc were two
other French refugee pastors
in London about the same time,
the latter being pastor of L'Ar-
tillerie . The Blancs were from
Saintonge and Poitou.
BLAQUI^RE, DE : a noble
family of Limousin, of whom
John de Blaquie're, a zealous
Huguenot, took refuge in Eng-
land in 1685. He married Mary
Elizabeth de Varennes, the
daughter of a refugee, by whom
he had issue. One of his sons
became eminent as a London
merchant ; another settled at
Lisburn, where his sister mar-
ried John Crommelin, son of
Louis. The fifth son, John,
entered the army, and became
lieutenant-colonel of the 17th
Light Dragoons. He held
various public offices : was Sec-
retary of Legation at Paris ;
secretary to the Lord-Lieu-
tenant of Ireland ; was made
a baronet in 1784 ; and raised
to the peerage in 1800 as
Lord de Blaquie're of Ardkill
in Ireland.
BLONDEL, MOSES : a learned
refugee scholar in London
about 1621, author of a work
on the Apocryphal writings.
BLONDEL, JAMES AUGUSTUS :
a distinguished refugee phy-
sician in London, as well as an
able scholar. The author of
several learned and scientific
treatises. He died in 1734.
BLOSSET : a Nivernais Pro-
testant family, the head of
which was the Sieur de Fleury.
Several Blossets fled into Hol-
land and England at the Re-
vocation. Colonel Blosset, of
"Blosset's Foot," who settled
in Ireland, was the owner of a
good estate in the county of
Dublin. Serjeant Blosset, after-
wards Lord Chief-Justice of
Bengal, belonged to the family.
For his connection with Mr.
Grote, see p. 322.
BOCHART, FRANCOIS : Haag
says that amongst the Protes-
tant refugees in Scotland,
Francis Bochart has been men-
tioned, who, in conjunction
with Claude Paulin, established
366
HUGUENOT REFUGEES.
BOD — BON.
in 1730 the manufacture of
cambric at Edinburgh.
BODT or BOTT, JOHN DE : a
refugee French officer : ap-
pointed captain of artillery and
engineers in the British ser-
vice in 1690. He distinguished
himself by the operations con-
ducted by him at the siege of
Namur — to which William III.
mainly attributed the capture
of the place. Bodt afterwards
entered the service of the King
of Prussia, who made him bri-
gadier and chief engineer. He
was also eminent as an archi-
tect, and designed some of the
principal public buildings in
Berlin.
BOESMER DE LA TotTCHE :
pastor of the French congrega-
tion at Winchelsea in 1700-6.
His son, of the same name, was
a surgeon in London in 1764.
BOEVEY, ANDREW : a Pro-
testant refugee from Courtray,
in Flanders He fled into
England during the persecu-
tions carried on in the reign of
Philip H., and settled in Lon-
don in 1572. He was a suc-
cessful merchant ; and at his
death, he left legacies to the
Dutch congregations ID London,
Norwich, and Haarlem. His
successors became landed pro-
prietors and intermarried with
the aristocracy ; Sir Thomas
Hyde Crawley Boevey, Bart.,
Flaxley Abbey, being the pre-
sent head of the family.
BOILEAXT DE CASTELNATI : an
ancient Languedoc family, many
of whose members embraced
Protestantism and remained
faithful to it. Jacques Boileau,
fifth Baron, counsellor of
Nismes, born 1657, died in
prison in France, after a con-
finement of ten years and six
months, for his adherence to
the Protestant religion. His
son Charles took refuge in
England, served in the Eng-
lish army as captain of in-
fantry, and died at Dublin.
His son Simeon, born at South-
ampton, was succeeded by
Solomon Boileau, who had
sons, from the eldest of whom,
Simeon Peter, the present
Major-General Boileau is de-
scended ; Sir John Boileau,
Bart., being descended from
John Peter, the fifth son. See
also p. 329.
BOILEAU : see Bouherau.
BOISBELATT DE LA CHAPELLE,
usually known as Armand de la
Chapelle. He left France at the
B^vocation. He was destined
for the ministry from an early
age. At eighteen he was sent
into Ireland to preach to the
French congregations, and after
two years, at the age of twenty,
he was appointed pastor of the
French church at Wandsworth.
He subsequently officiated as
minister of the Artillery church,
and of the French church at the
Hague. He was a voluminous
writer.
BONHOMME : a Protestant
draper from Paris, who settled
at Ipswich, and instructed the
artizans there in the manufac-
ture of sail-cloth, which shortly
became a considerable branch
of British industry.
BOXNELL, THOMAS : a gen-
tleman of good family near
Ypres, in Flanders, who took
refuge in England from the
Duke of Alva's persecutions,
and settled at Norwich, of
BOS — BOTT.
HUGUEXOT REFUGEES.
367
which he became mayor. His
son was Daniel Bonnell, mer-
chant, of London, father of
Samuel Bonnell, who served
his apprenticeship with Sir
William Courteen (a Flemish
refugee), and established him-
self as a merchant at Leghorn.
He returned to England, and
at the Bestoration was ap-
pointed accountant-general for
Ireland. He died at Dublin,
and was succeeded in the office
by his son, a man eminent for
his piety, and whose life has
been fully written by Arch-
deacon Hamilton, of Armagh.
BOSANQTJET, DAVID : a Hu-
guenot refugee, naturalised in
England in 1687. His grand-
son, Samuel, was a director of
the Bank of England. Mary,
the sister of the latter, was the
celebrated wife of the Rev. Mr.
Fletcher, vicar of Madeley.
Other members occupied illus-
trious positions in society. One,
William, founded the well-
known bank in London. Sir
John B. Bosanquet, the cele-
brated judge, also belonged to
the family, which is now re-
presented by Samuel Richard
Bosanquet, of Dingestow Court,
Monmouth.
BOSQUET, ANDREW: a refugee
from Languedoc, who escaped
into England after suffering
fourteen years' slavery in the
French King's galleys. He was
the originator of the West-
minster French Charity School,
founded in 1747, for the educa-
tion of children of poor French
refugees.
BOSTAQUET, DtTMONT DE : for
notice see pp. 202-28.
BOUFARD, see Garric.
BOUHERATJ, ELIAS, M.D.,
D.D. : son of one of the Pro-
testant pastors of La Rochelle,
from which port he escaped at
the Revocation, carrying with
him the records of the Consis-
tory, of which his father was
president. He settled in Dublin,
where he was appointed libra-
rian to the Marsh Library (now
known as St. Patrick's Library),
and deposited the above-men-
tioned papers in a strong box.
He afterwards officiated as sec-
retary to the Earl of Galway.
When the Earl left Ireland,
Dr. Bouherau became pastor
of one of the French congrega-
tions in Dublin ; but, having
been officially ordained, he
afterwards officiated as chantor
of St. Patrick's Cathedral. One
of his sons, John, entered the
church ; another was " Town-
major of Dublin." The latter
altered his name to Borough ;
and from him the present Sir E.
R. Borough, of Baseldon Park,
Berkshire, is lineally descended.
Within the last few years the
original box, containing the
records of the church of La
Rochelle previous to the Revo-
cation, brought over by Dr.
Bouherau in 1685, was opened,
and a paper found in it in the
doctor's handwriting, directing
that, in the event of the Protes-
tant Consistory at La Rochelle
ever becoming reconstituted
and reclaiming the papers, they
were to be given up. A com-
munication was accordingly for-
warded to the Consistory of La
Rochelle, offering to restore the
papers ; and they were duly
forwarded to Pastor Delmas,
the president, who has since
368
HUGUENOT REFUGEES.
BOU — BBI.
published, with their assist-
ance, a history of the Pro-
testant church of La Rochelle.
BOURDILLON, JACOB : an able
an eloquent pastor of several
French churches in London.
For notice; see pp. 285-7.
BOURGEOIS, BURGESS : an
ancient Protestant family of
Picardy (seigneurs of Gamache
and d'Oye, and of de la Fosse'),
a member of which, VaMry or
Vale'rien de Bourgeois, came
over to England with one of
the first bodies of immigrants,
and settled with the earliest
congregation at Canterbury.
Births, deaths, and marriages
of members of the family ap-
pear in the registers of the
Huguenot church there, from
the year 1592 downwards. In
that year Rolin Bourgeois " de
Gamache en Picardie," son of
the original refugee, married
Marie Gambier ; and successive
intermarriages took place with
members of the De Money, Le
Cornue, La Motte, and Four-
nier families, down to the
middle of last century, when
the Huguenot identity became
almost unrecognisable, and
Bourgeois was changed to Bur-
gess. The tradition, however,
contimied to exist in the family,
that they were of Huguenot
extraction ; and since the pub-
lication of the first edition of
this book, Lieutenant Burgess,
late of the 46th Regiment, has,
with the assistance of the
Heralds' College of France
and the Canterbury Registers,
clearly traced the pedigree of
his family back to the seigneurs
of Gamache.
BOUVERIES, LAURENCE DBS :
a refugee from Sainghen, near
Lille, in 1568. He settled first
at Sandwich, and afterwards at
Canterbury, where he began
the business of a silk weaver.
Edward, the grandson of Lau-
rence, established himself in
London as a Levant merchant ;
and from that time the family
greatly prospered. William was
made a baronet in 1711 ; and
Jacob was created a peer, under
the title of Viscount Folke-
stone, in 1747. His son Philip
assumed the name of Pusey
on his marriage in 1798. The
Rev. Dr. Pusey, of Oxford, is
one of the sons by this mar-
riage. For further notice see
p. 320.
BOYER, ABEL : a refugee
from Castres, where he was
born in 1664. He died, pen
in hand, at Chelsea, in 1729.
He was the author of the well-
known French and English Dic-
tionary, as well as of several
historical works.
BREVET, COSME : a Hugue-
not pastor, who took refuge in
Guernsey, after the St. Bar-
tholomew massacre. He was
made minister of the island of
Sark. His grandson, Daniel
Brevin, D. D., was prebendary
of Durham and Dean of Lin-
coln ; and the author of several
important religious works.
BRIOT, NICOLAS : one of the
first coin-engravers of his age,
supposed to have been the in-
ventor of the coining-press. He
was a native of Lorraine, a gen-
tleman born, and possessed of
the genius of a true artist. He
was Graver of the Mint to
Louis XIII., king of France ;
but being a Protestant, and
BRI — BRO
HUGUENOT REFUGEES.
369
thereby placed under serious
disabilities, he fled from his
native country and took refuge
in England, where he intro-
duced his coining-press, and
was appointed chief engraver
to the Mint by Charles I. in
the year 1626. His first pub-
lished work was a fine medal
of the King, exhibited in
Evelyn, with the artist's name,
and the date 1628. In 1632
we find Briot engaged coining
money upon the regular esta-
blishment, by means of his
press, instead of by hammer-
ing, as was the previous prac-
tice. In 1633, he was sent
down to Scotland to prepare
and coin the coronation pieces
of Charles I. On the death of
Sir John Foulis, Master of the
Mint in Scotland, Briot was
appointed to the office in 1636,
and superintended the coinage
for several years. Sir John
Falconer, brother of Sir Alex-
ander Falconer, one of the
Senators of the College of Jus-
tice (created Lord Halkerton
in 1647), having married Esther
Briot, daughter of Nicolas Briot,
in 1637, was from that year
conjoined with him in the
office, which he held until the
outbreak of the civil war. The
coronation-medal of Charles I.,
executed by Briot, and struck
at Edinburgh on the 18th June,
1633, was the first piece struck
in Britain with a legend on the
edge, and, it is supposed, was
the only gold one ever coined
in Scotland. Three only of
these fine medals are known
to exist, one of which is in the
British Museum. Briot was
recalled to England by the
King ; and, at the time of the
rebellion, he took possession
of the punches, roller instru-
ments, and coining apparatus
at the Tower, by order of his
Majesty, and had them re-
moved, trussed up in saddles,
at the hazard of his life, for
the purpose of continuing the
coining operations in the cause
of the King. The tradition in
the family — which survives in
the Falconers, his descendants
— is, that he died of grief on the
death of Charles I. In the
Museum at Oxford are two
small carvings on wood — re-
presenting Christ on the Cross,
and the Nativity — with the
cypher N.B. on each, which are
understood to have been the
work of this accomplished artist.
BRISSAC, B. DE : a refugee
pastor from Chatellerault, who
fled from France at the Revo-
cation. We find one of his
descendants, Captain George
Brissac, a director of the French
Hospital in London in 1773.
Haag says that one of the
female Brjasacs became famous
at Berlin for her sausages, and
especially for her black pud-
dings, which continue to be
known there as " boudins fran-
§ais."
BROCAS : a noble family,
holding numerous lordships in
the south of France, mostly in
the neighbourhood of Bordeaux.
The Very Reverend Theophilus
Brocas, D.D., was a scion of
the family. He escaped from
France at the Revocation, and,
having taken holy orders, he
was appointed by the Crown to
the deanery of Killala and
vicarage of St. Anne's, Dublin.
24
370
HUGUENOT REFUGEES.
BRO — BUS
He was a highly distinguished
divine, and for his valuable
services in promoting the arts
and manufactures of Ireland,
he was presented with the free-
dom of the city of Dublin in a
gold box, accompanied by a
suitable address. He died in
1766, and was interred in St.
Anne's churchyard, Dublin.
He was succeeded in the
deanery by his only son and
heir, the Rev. John Brocas,
D.D., rector of Monkstown,
and chaplain of the military
chapel at Rings-end. He died
in 1806, and left issue, the Rev.
Theophilus Brocas, rector of
Strabane, in the diocese of
Derry, and an only sister,
Georgiana, who married, in
1804, Robert Lindesay, Esq.,
captain of the Louth Militia.
The Rev. Theophilus Brocas
dying without issue, this noble
family has become extinct in
the male line, but survives,
through the female line, in the
person of Walter Lindesay,
Esq., of Glen view, County
Wicklow, J.P., who is its pre-
sent representative.
BROS : see De Brasses.
BRUNEI : a numerous Pro-
testant family in Saintonge.
N. Bnmet, a privateer of La
Rochelle, was in 1662 con-
demned to suffer corporal pun-
ishment, and to pay a fine of
1000 livres, unless within a
given time he produced before
the magistrates thirty-six young
Protestants whom he had car-
ried over to America. Of course
the refugee youths were never
produced. At the Revocation
the Brunets of Rochelle nearly
all innigrated to London. We
find frequent baptisms of chil-
dren of the name recorded in
the registers of the churches of
Le Quarre and La Nouvelle
Patente, as well as marriages
at the same place, and at
Wheeler Street Chapel and La
Patente in Soho.
BUCER, MARTIN : a refugee
from Alsace ; one of the early
reformers, an eloquent preacher
as well as a vigorous and learned
writer. He accepted the in-
vitation of Archbishop Cranmer
to settle in England, where he
assisted in revising the English
liturgy, excluding whatsavoured
of popery, but not going so far as
Calvin. He was appointed pro-
fessor of theology at Cambridge,
where he was presented with a
doctor's diploma. But the
climate of England not agree-
ing with him, Bucer returned to
Strasburg, where he died, 1551.
BUCHLEIN, otherwise called
FAGIUS : a contemporary of
Martin Bucer, and, like him, a
refugee at Cambridge TJnwer-
sity, where he held the profes-
sorship of Hebrew. While in
that office, which he held for
only a few years, he fell ill of
fever, of which he died, but not
without a suspicion of having
been poisoned.
BURGESS : see Bourgeois.
BUSSI£RE,PAUL: a celebrated
anatomist, F.R.S., and corre
spending member of various
scientific societies. He lived
for a time in London, but
eventually settled at Copen-
hagen, where he achieved a
high reputation. We find one
Paul Buissie're governor of the
French Hospital in London in
1729,and Jean Buissie're in 1770.
— CAR
HUGUENOT REFUGEES.
371
CAILLEMOTTE, LA : younger
son of the old Marquis de Ru-
vigny; he commanded a Hugue-
not regiment at the battle of the
Boyne, where he was killed.
See Massue, and notices, pp.
222, 225.
CAMBON : a refugee French
officer, who commanded one of
the Huguenot regiments raised
in London in 1689. He fought
at the Boyne and at Athlone,
and died in 1693.
CAPPEL, Lotns: characterized
as " the father of sacred criti-
cism." He was born at Saint
Elier in 1585 ; at twenty he
was selected by the Duke de
Bouillon as tutor for his son.
Four years later the church at
Bordeaux furnished him with
the means of visiting the prin-
cipal academies of England,
Holland, and Germany. He
passed two years at Oxford,
during which he principally oc-
cupied himself with the study
of the Semitic languages. He
subsequently occupied the chair
of theology in the university of
Saumur until his death, which
occurred in 1658. Bishop Hall
designated Louis Cappel "the
grand oracle of the Hebraists."
Louis' son James was appointed
professor of Hebrew in the
same university at the early
age of nineteen. At the Re-
vocation he took refuge in
England, and became professor
of Latin in the Nonconform-
ist College, Hoxton Square,
London. For notice see p.
257.
CARBONEL, JOHN : son of
Thomas Carbonel, merchant of
Caen ; John 'was one of the
secretaries of Louis XIV. He
fled to England at the Revo-
cation. His brother William
became an eminent merchant
in London.
CARLE, PETER : a native of
Valleraugue in the Cevennes,
born 1666 ; died in London
3730. He fled from France at
the Revocation, passing by
Geneva through Switzerland
into Holland, and finally into
England. He entered the
corps of engineers in the army
of William, and fought at the
Boyne. He afterwards accom-
panied the army through all its
campaigns in the Low Coun-
tries. He rose to be fourth
engineer in the British service,
and retired upon a pension in
1693. He afterwards served
under Lord Gal way in Spain,
after which the king of Portu-
gal made him lieutenant-general
and engineer-in-chief . In 1720
he returned to England, and
devoted the rest of his life to
the improvement of agricul-
ture, on which subject he wrote
and published many useful
works.
CARRE' : a Protestant family
of Poitou, of which several
members emigrated to England
and others to North America.
A. M. Carre' officiated as reader
in the French church at Ham-
mersmith ; and another of the
same name was minister of
La Patente, London. We also
find one Francis Carre* a mem-
ber of the consistory of New
York in 1772.
CARTATTD , or CARTAULT, MAT-
THEW : a Protestant minister
who fled from France at the
time of the Bartholomew mas-
sacre, and officiated as pastor of
372
HUGUENOT REFUGEES.
CAS — CAZ
the little church of fugitives at
Rye, afterwards returning to
Dieppe ; and again (on the
revival of the persecution)
finally settling and dying in
England. One of his sons
was minister of La Nouvelle
Patente, London, in 1696.
CASATJBON, ISAAC : son of a
French refugee from Bour-
deaux settled at Geneva, where
he was born in 1559. His
father returned to Paris on the
temporary cessation of the per-
secution, became minister of a
congregation at Crest, and pro-
pointed him prebendary of
Westminster. He . died at
London in 1614, leaving be-
hind him twenty sons and
daughters, and a large number
of works written during his
lifetime, chiefly on classical
and religious subjects. Hia
son Florence Stephen Casau-
bon, D.D., having accompanied
his father into England, was
entered a student at Christ
Church, Oxford, in 1614, where
he greatly distinguished him-
self. In 1622 he took the
degree of M.A. He was ap-
ceeded with the education of
his son Isaac, who gave signs
of extraordinary abilities. At
nine years of age he spoke
Latin with fluency. At the
massacre of Saint Bartholomew
the family fled into conceal-
ment ; and it was while hiding
in a cavern that Isaac received
from his father his first lesson
in Greek. At nineteen he was
sent to the academy of Geneva,
where he studied jurisprudence
under Pacius, theology under
De Beza, and Oriental lan-
guages under Chevalier ; but no
branch of learning attracted
him more than Greek, and he
was, at the age of twenty-four,
appointed professor of that
language at Geneva. His large
family induced him to return
to France, and accept the pro-
fessorship of civil laws in the
university of Montpellier ; and
there he settled for a time. On
the revival of persecution in
France after the assassination
of Henry IV., Casaubon emi-
grated to England. He was
pointed rector of Ickham, and
afterwards prebendary of Can-
terbury. He was the author
of many learned works. He
died at Canterbury in 1671.
CATJX, DE
of this name
many refugees
fled from Nor-
mandy into England. Several
of them came over from Dieppe
and settled in Norwich, their
names frequently occurring in
the registers of
church there, in
the French
conjunction
with those of Martineau, Co-
lumbine, Le Monnier, De la
Haye, etc. Solomon de Caus,
the engineer, whose name is
connected with the first inven-
tion of the steam-engine, spent
several years as a refugee in
England ; after which he pro-
ceeded to Germany in 1613,
and ultimately died in France,
whither he returned in his old
age. For notice, see p. 243.
CAVALIER, JOHN : tne (k-
vennol leader, afterwards bri-
gadier-general in the British
army, and lieutenant-governor
of Jersey.
well received by James I., who | 234.
gave him a pension, and ap- 1 CAZENOVE
For notice, see p.
The family of
CHA — CHA
HUGUENOT REFUGEES.
373
De Cazenove de Pradines, at
Marmande, in Guienne, were
well-known Huguenots at the
time of the Revocation. Several
members of the family took re-
fuge in England. One of its
present representatives, Philip
Cazenove, is well known as
a large-hearted benefactor in |
every good undertaking.
CHABOT, JAMES : The head
of this family in England, was
sent over from France, when '
about seven years of age, con- j
cealed in a hamper or basket, i
This was during the persecu- i
tions which followed the Revo-
cation of the Edict of Nantes, i
It is supposed that his parents ;
sent him over to England to
prevent him being taken from
them and brought up as a
Roman Catholic. They doubt-
less intended to follow him, but
were unable to make their
escape. Nothing is known of
them, excepting that they were
nobles, and possessed of large
estates. For this reason, they
may have been murdered. Or,
the father may have been sent
to the galleys, and the mother
. immured in a convent for life.
But as regards the child who
had escaped to England, he was
brought up in the household of
the Duke of Bolton. On the
death of his patron, and after
arriving at man's estate, he
married, and settled at High
Wycombe, Bucks, — being de-
scribed, in the registers of his
two sons, as "of the Borough
of Chopping Wycombe." His
eldest son, James, carried on
the business of a Calendarer
and Tabby Waterer in Moor-
fields, London, — whose third
son, Philip, the grandfather of
Philip James, settled in Spital-
fields as a silk dyer, — the firm
continuing for three genera-
tions. Philip James Chabot,
M.A., F.R.A.S., was for about
twenty years Secretary of the
Old Mathematical Society of
Crispin Street (a society mainly
supported by the descendants
of French refugees), until its
incorporation with the Royal
Astronomical Society in 1845.
He was then made, in common
with the other remaining mem-
bers, a fellow of the latter
society. M. Chabot was for
many years a director of the
French Hospital. It was mainly
owing to his exertions that the
Conditioning of Silk, as prac-
tised in all continental cities,
was established in London. His
first cousin, James Chabot,
Esq. , of Manchester, eldest son
of the late James Chabot, Esq. ,
of Malta, is now the head of
the family.
CHAIGNEAU, Louis, JOHN,
AND STEPHEN : refugees from
St. Sairenne, in the Charente,
where the family held conside-
rable landed estates. They
settled in Dublin, and pros-
pered. One of the sons of
Louis sat for Gowran in the
Irish Parliament ; another held
a benefice in the Church. John
had two sons — Colonel William
Chaigneau, and John, Treasurer
of the Ordnance. The great-
grandson of Stephen was called
to the Irish bar in 1793. He
eventually purchased the estate
of Benown, in county West-
meath.
CHAMBERLAYNE, PETEB,
M.D. : a physician of Paris,
374
HUGUENOT REFUGEES.
CHA — CHA
who fled into England a